Disconnection
by ZePuKa
Summary: When Sugar Rush suddenly vanishes from the arcade, Ralph blames himself & vows to restore things to the way they were, which may involve taking care of the new game that's taken Vanellope's place. Meanwhile, the citizens of Sugar Rush find themselves under programmatic attack at the hands of a computer graphics graduate. Vanellope and her friends may never be the same...
1. Prologue: Midnight Black

******. : : Disconnection : : .**

_**Prologue: ****Midnight Black**_

The same black expanse that always occupied the skies inside the cabinet of Fix-It Felix Jr. surrounded Ralph as he gazed out from atop the roof of the penthouse. From all appearances, there was nothing unusual or out of place this night, save a little pile of bricks comparable to the height of a Nicelander that he was standing on. Everything else, from the building itself, to the surrounding grounds and gardens, and even to the window in the sky was all the same. Yet... tonight's sky felt uncharacteristically more... _suffocating_. Claustrophobia had never been a problem before. After all, whenever he found himself in a small enclosed space, he would just wreck it... but the walls that were pressing in around him now were intangible and painted midnight black. There was no way out.

The glimmer of other arcade games flashing through the skylight had been tempting him to look up, like a siren of light amidst the darkness of his game. Yet he dared not look up; he dared not search through the shooting star-lights of other arcade games for the only light he cared about: the light of his life. Despite his best efforts, Ralph could no longer resist the magnetic pull of the skylight. After all, this _was_ the best vantage point, the same place he was in at the end of every Fix-It Felix Jr. game, right before he was tossed over the side to careen into the mud. Allowing his eyes to adjust to the light radiating in from the skylight, he automatically focused on the spot over by the Whack-A-Mole; the _empty _spot over by the Whack-A-Mole.

All at once the darkness pressed in around him again, pulling him into the murky depths of hopelessness, and a wave of deep-set emotion threatened to burst forth in any way it could, none of which he was willing to succumb to. Any reaction would force him to acknowledge that this was real, to let go of the hope that this was all just a horrid nightmare. "Van-", he blurted in a moment of weakness, cutting himself off as he regained control. He couldn't let this darkness win, pressing as it was.

* * *

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Calhoun wondered aloud as she gazed out the window of the top level of the penthouse – her shared bedroom with her husband.

"Hm?" Felix responded as he fumbled with his belt buckle.

"He's been up on the roof for so long now."

"What? When did he go up there?"

The sergeant resisted the urge to tease her rather dense husband on his lack of tactical and observational skills, as now hardly seemed the time or place for that. "I heard the elevator groaning as it transported him and a pile of bricks up a couple hours ago.", she replied simply.

"Oh... Well, hard labor is probably just his way of coping. I wouldn't worry too much about him though. I've worked with him for over 35 years now and I've never once seen him cry. He's too tough for that.", he rambled as he tried to escape from the shirt he'd pulled over his head, but couldn't quite get all the way off.

Unable to suppress a little chuckle at her husband's clumsiness, Tamora strode over to help him finish getting ready for bed, pushing her worry for Ralph to the back of her mind. "Yeah, I suppose you're right…"

Once they were both ready, she stole one last glance out the window, and suddenly ran back to it in surprise. "Felix, you never told me your game had a rain program!" When she didn't hear a response, she turned her head around to see if he'd fallen asleep already, but what she saw brought her worry back to the forefront of her mind. The look on her husband's face explained all; that face that had only moments ago told her not to worry was now wrought with worry itself.

"It doesn't..."

* * *

**. : : Meta-Data : : .**

**. . Greetings, Player 1 . .**

You have been selected to embark on an adventure alongside these brave men and women who are fighting for friendship, family, and love despite the odds fighting to disconnect them. Should you accept this mission, be forewarned that you shall encounter many strange worlds, circumstances, and characters. Being a human entity, you will go unobserved by, and disconnected from these characters. They will neither be able to see, nor hear you, as you walk among them. What is your objective then, if you are unable to interact with them, you ask? Your objective is to outwit them, to figure it out before they do and reconnect the scattered events. If you are successful in that, you may just change the tide of their affairs by inputting your feedback at the end of each level. **  
**

**. . Story . .**

**_- Phase 1 -_** I'm sure you all know and love our favorite hero - that is, heroic villain -, Wreck-It Ralph, as well as his close friends Mr. and Mrs. Fix-It. However his favorite candy-coated friend has been removed from Litwak's arcade! So Ralph enlists the help of some old and new friends for a rescue attempt. As for the occupants of Sugar Rush, they are left in a constant state of panic and confusion as they try to determine what will become of their game, and if this is the end of their racing lives as they know it...

**_- Phase 2 -_**_(Spoiler Alert)_ A new game at Litwak's brings a flood of memories back to Ralph, and he can't shake the wave of nostalgia of the Sugar Rush he once knew that come flooding back to him as a result. However, the main character in this one, 'Caffeine Craze', is so very different, that even if it was the same Vanellope, their relationship dynamic could never be what it once was... Unable to deal with uncertainty the rest of his life, Ralph makes it his mission to determine once and for all if there's ANYTHING left of the Vanellope he once knew, sorting out these unsettling new feelings all the way...

**. . Game Play . .**

Each level will reveal a new set of information, and using the culmination of all clues up to that level, you can determine things like the when/where/who/why of a situation, such as the reason for past events, making sense of current 'Disconnected' events, and creating theories for future events. You may be intentionally led astray by false clues however, so be on your guard! You will be able to unlock bonus materials like music, drawings, bonus chapters, etc... for different milestones such as reaching a certain chapter, meeting a certain character, contributing to the number of views/follows/favorites/reviews, etc..., and maybe even alter the course of events by participating in a contest or two; so pay attention to the **Developer's Notes** in the **Meta-Data **section for each chapter!

**. . Cheat Codes! . .**

Like every game, there are... **CHEAT CODES!** There is a **Q&A** section in the **Meta-Data** for this story so that you can ask the developer ANYTHING you want about the story (be it guessing the future, or asking about things you don't understand, about the writing style, about a character, theory, etc...) and if it's appropriate, she'll answer it in the next chapter post. If answering your question would give spoilers for everyone else, she'll respond via PM instead. (And let it be noted that if it's TOO much of a spoiler, she'll tell you so and not answer your question just then :) )

**. . Developer's Notes . .**

**Rated T** to be safe. The Rating is more to declare the intended target audience, though I strive for keeping my writing clean enough for most all audiences, while still being entertaining. You can expect something like the following: No cursing (As defined by American culture. If cursing is necessary for a character, I tend to make up my own explicative vocabulary to suit said character); No adult themes (Minus the occasional mild innuendo, any sexual themes you may pick up were not intentional while I was writing it. There will be no explicit scenes nor 'build up' for such scenes.); Occasional intense action violence, but no more than mild descriptions of injuries sustained so no gore will be described. Death/Deletion may be discussed, and may even occur, but will not be covered in detail.

**. . Acknowledgements . .**

This game is not affiliated with the original creator, Disney. I do not own the original characters in Wreck-It Ralph, and I do not own the cameo characters from other games. These are owned by their respective company creators. Any other mention of Computer hardware / software is also not owned by me, but by the companies that patented / manufactured them (with the exception of any open-source software. Those belong to the domain ;D ). Any plot points and/or original characters of mine bearing resemblance to those belonging to others or to real life events and/or people are purely coincidental.

**_Enjoy playing... if you dare..._**

_Last updated: 7/30/13 22:25 (UTC-5:00)_


	2. Sweet Twentieth

**Phase I, Level 1: Sweet Twentieth**

_One Week Earlier…_

"Ooooo I'm so ready to tear this track up!" Vanellope squealed to no one in particular as she stepped out onto the familiar taffy track. It was glistening beneath her feet with the same luscious luster it always had. The track showed no such signs of the excessive usage, despite the abuse it had gotten from two decades and twelve go-karts. The self-proclaimed 'president' of this track inhaled deeply and let the sweet sugary aroma of it all seep into her soul, pumping her spirit of excitement up all the more.

Scanning the crowd of various candy citizens and outsider characters from other games that were gathering in the bleachers to watch the race, Vanellope sighed lightly when she didn't spot the person she had been scanning for. Suddenly she wasn't so pumped to race as she had been just a moment ago. Slapping a smile back on her face, she made sure to wave at her other guests when she spotted them before turning and striding over to her go-kart.

"What's eatin' ya?" a short platinum blond-headed racer inquired – a slightly cannibalistic statement for the world of Sugar Rush, given most of the inhabitants of the world were indeed edible – before popping her usual lollipop back into her mouth.

"Oh, uh… nothing." Vanellope lied, avoiding eye contact.

"You're not fooling anyone, President V., especially not me." the blond shot back with a smirk.

"Ughhh. I'll tell ya later, Taffyta. For now, just prepare to get your taffy tush whipped as I beat you in the race!"

"You're the one who's gonna be whipped creamed and licorice lashed!" Taffyta rebutted as she hopped into her pink kart.

Vanellope would have made a comeback if the announcer hadn't started blaring over the loudspeaker, "Ladies and Gentlebeans, welcome to Sugar Rush's 20th anniversary roster race! Instead of the usual roster race, we'll be conducting this one as a tournament over three different courses to celebrate this auspicious day! Racers, to your marks!"

With that, Vanellope made one last scan of the crowd then ran a hand over the hardened icing detail on her kart that read "Ralph". 'Why aren't you here?' she thought to herself, then told herself to snap out of it and pay attention to the race. She jumped into her kart and started up the engine as a familiar song started blaring "S-U-G-A-R jump into your racing car…"

* * *

Ralph squinted as light poured over his eyelids, rousing him from a deep – and rather needed – slumber. Yawning and stretching, he mulled over his to-do list for the day, and as a stretch strained a knot in his back, he winced as he remembered the tasks of yesterday. Ever since they had introduced the 'Unplugged Program', business had been busy in Fix-It Felix Jr. and wrecking thousands of bricks and windows for 12 hours straight each day wasn't exactly a walk in the park – Not to mention the multi-story fall at the end of each go. Barely a day went by that he didn't use most – if not all – his spare time when the arcade was closed just to sleep it off. That is, when he wasn't using it to build new houses for the new recruits or to act as a head hunter when there wasn't enough room for them in the Fix-It Felix Jr. game.

After rumors of the games' new bonus level success spread, characters flocked to them when they were unplugged, all seeking employment. Some of the other games with extra memory space had also bought into the gig, seeking to boost their popularity as well to avoid getting unplugged themselves. There was even an exchange program now, where all the unplugged characters would game hop to help all the older, unpopular games out. The results were rather satisfactory, as now the only unplugged games were the ones who could not be fixed when a piece of hardware broke. Rather than being junked when a game was old and rarely played, the interest in all the games was kept up with the new cameo dynamics on bonus levels, so less games were unplugged overall. In fact, Litwak's had become so popular over the last five years, he'd been forced to add a second floor to his arcade to house all the old games as well as the new games he would get. Indeed, many competing arcades had hounded Litwak for his secret to success, but he remained tight-lipped and claimed it was a trade secret, if for no other reason than to mask the fact that he had no idea how it all happened either.

As founder of such a successful program, Ralph always had his hands full, despite their enormous size. Taxing, for sure, but rewarding. He, who was always the villain on-screen, was now the hero to hundreds of unplugged characters, and well-liked by nearly all games in the arcade. It was just the new games he sometimes had issues with. They were too young, naïve, and arrogant to realize they may just need his help one day.

Forcing himself to get out of bed, Ralph strode over to his work area, which was cluttered with all sorts of paperwork concerning the aforementioned program – documents stating which characters were where, possible future placements, papers detailing Litwak's operating schedule, etc. He really needed to start outsourcing, he mused to himself, dreading the process of actually going through all those papers. He'd heard of outsourcing companies in India, but there was also rumors that they can be hard to communicate with, and the only world wide web connection at the arcade was in the "Litwak's Photobooth" installed 3 years ago, and talking with Kitty was a pain in the…

Ralph's thoughts were interrupted as his eyes snapped to an entry penned in red on his calendar that read, "4AM: Vanellope's 20th Anniversary Tournament. DO NOT MISS". Scrambling for his alarm clock, Ralph nearly crushed it as he grabbed hold of it and noted in agony that the time was now 4:36 and counting. Grateful that he always slept in his overalls, Ralph ran straight through the nearest wall without a moments delay, nearly bowling over a Nicelander or two as he bolted to the train station. Unfortunately this resulted in his overalls being coated in brick dust and glazed with pie filling – hopefully the Nicelander who made it wouldn't be too cross about that… or too flat. Whoever programmed him really should have taken into account how invisible the Nicelanders could be to him, considering they were so short and little, and he was so… not.

Grand Central Station was left deserted – probably due to the fact that most of the arcade was at Sugar Rush, and wouldn't leave until they were, uh… desserted. Ralph exited the Fix-It Felix Jr. tunnel, only to be stopped by Surge. "Aw, come on, really? I'm in a hurry, can't you just skip this for once!?" the villain pleaded to the unmoving, emotionless guard.

* * *

Vanellope swerved as a cherry bomb crossed her path and she noticed it a moment too late to avoid it safely. She was sent careening into a giant gumdrop she supposed she should be grateful to for stopping her velocity before she got too far from the track – didn't mean she was any less happy about the crumpled fender and whiplash. "Snap out of it, V!" Minty called as she zoomed by in a green blur.

"Great, now I'm last place!" the sidelined racer grumbled, attempting to start the stalled kart. Much to her chagrin, it refused to start. "GRRYYAHHH!" she screamed, exasperated. This must mean she'd exceeded her number of allotted crashes for the round, hence why the game hadn't automatically reset her car to pristine condition. She'd have to sit the rest of this one out. Defeated and mentally kicking herself for zoning out through the entire tournament, Vanellope clicked on her car's radio communicator. "Hey Chief, I need a tow…"

* * *

Once Surge had finally let him pass, Ralph bounded across Grand Central station to the entrance for Sugar Rush, and – wouldn't you know it – got stopped once again by Surge. 'Some things never change.' Ralph mentally noted in annoyance, and briefly entertained the idea of wrecking Surge, if he were actually material. Finally able to enter the Sugar Rush tunnel, Ralph boarded the 'Choco-Choo-Choo' - as the train proudly called itself on its chocolate drizzle inscription – and waited anxiously for it to depart.

The sight that greeted him at the other end of the tunnel wasn't encouraging. A whole crowd of characters from other games in the arcade were waiting to board, deep in conversation concerning the events of the race that was apparently now over. His heart sank deeper than the surrounding conversations, prodding him to elbow his way a tad roughly through the crowd with one objective: To find Vanellope and profusely beg for forgiveness.

* * *

"What's wrong with Vanellope?" Minty asked as she approached Taffyta, who was currently beaming in her victory.

"I'm not entirely sure, but she better get over it fast, I refuse to accept such an easy victory as worthy of my time and skill."

"Do you know she wiped out on the Twizzler turn? I saw her wreck her kart when I passed her. She never caught up either."

This changed the usually smug expression on Taffyta's face to that of true concern. Sure enough, a quick survey of her surroundings verified Minty's declaration. All racers and karts were accounted for, save Vanellope's. "But… she ALWAYS nails that turn!"

"I know. Do you think we should call a quick presidential council with all the other racers to address this? If she's caught a bug, it could put the whole game out of order!" Minty advised.

"You really think it could be a bug?" Taffyta pressed, truly hoping it wasn't. A bug could spell death for any game, and Sugar Rush had already had its own run in with 'bug's – albeit legitimately coded Cy-bugs – and at twenty years of age, Litwak probably wouldn't invest the money to fix them, popular though they were. Too old to be under warranty, too young to be a collectible.

"She came in dead last; didn't even finish. Something must be DIABETCIALLY wrong."

Worried that Minty's vocabulary blunder might actually not be too far from the truth, and resisting the urge to verbally correct her with a 'I think you mean DIABOLICALLY.' Taffyta merely nodded her agreement and gave orders to assemble the other racers, and left to find Sour Bill herself with a petition to open the presidential council, ASYRUP – er, ASAP.

* * *

Successfully breaking through the crowd, Ralph scanned the finish line for his favorite licorice-haired racer; to no avail. Vanellope was nowhere in sight.

"Ralph!" a familiar voice called, though deeper and not as sweet as the voice he wanted to hear. Turning to address the call, Ralph hailed Felix and Tamora as they approached.

Too upset at the moment to worry about friendly formalities, Ralph got right to the point, "Why didn't you guys wake me up?"

Felix opened his mouth to answer, but seemed to think better of it and just stood there with a shamed demeanor. The sergeant stepped in instead and answered, "For starters, the last one who tried to wake you up almost ended up a brick-bun hamburger."

She had a point, Ralph had to admit, but still, Calhoun was certainly made of tough enough stuff to handle anything he could dish.

As if reading his thoughts, Calhoun continued, "I tried to wake you myself, but short of putting a bullet through your thick skull, you were unresponsive. I wasn't able to try too long either, or we would've missed the race as well, and to have none of us there before she started the race may have crushed her spirits into candy cane dust."

Thinking he could've done without the sergeant's blunt metaphors, he swallowed his pride and accepted his mistake, choosing to change the direction of the conversation, "So, where is she now?"

"She wiped out back at the Twizzler turn; they're getting together a service crew now to go fetch her. Now don't stand there like a blundering idiot, go get her yourself and prepare yourself for a barrage of tantrums, and take them like a man!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Ralph responded out of habit – he'd befriended the soldiers of Hero's Duty, and their behavior around the Sergeant was a bit contagious.

Without another word, Ralph jogged down the track in the direction of Twizzler turn, shouting out "Don't worry, I got this guys!" as he passed the pit crew that was heading there themselves to clean up the wreckage.

* * *

Vanellope sniffed back a few tears of self-pity as she sat on the back of her go-kart, swinging her dangling legs impatiently, waiting for the 'rescue crew'.

Catching a glimpse of movement from the corner of her eye, she turned her head that direction and wiped at her eyes with her sleeve to clear her vision. What – or rather _who_ - she saw made her face beam, until she remembered that she was supposed to be upset with him. When she remembered why, she started to boil with anger so much the candy in her hair started to melt.

"Hey – kid – you – ok?" Ralph asked in-between gasps as he tried to regain his breath on approach.

Not trusting herself to speak without bursting into tears, Vanellope just gave a "Hmph!" as she crossed her arms and turned away.

"Look, Kid – Vanellope -, I'm REALLY sorry I missed your race. I really wanted to be here, I did, I just, somehow… managed to… oversleep… a little..." Ralph apologized sheepishly.

"Oh, so I'm just that boring!?" Vanellope vented, still keeping her face turned away.

"What!? No! I don't think you're boring at all! You're one of the most interesting people I know! I'm just a little tired from work…"

"Work, work, work, you're ALWAYS working! You're ALWAYS missing my races! You hardly ever come to see me, I never get to see your poopy face, Stinkbrain!" Vanellope's eyes were welling up with tears again with the conclusion of that statement, but she was still turned the other way, grateful that Ralph hadn't made a move to turn her around as of yet.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I'll try in the future to come more often, I've been really considering training some people to help out with my work load so I'll have more free time to-"

"But you already missed THIS race, my twentieth anniversary tournament! EVERYONE in the arcade was there! Everyone but – " She had meant to say 'The person I care about most.' but decided against it – both because it seemed too mushy gushy, and because she didn't think she could choke out that many more words before she would burst out sobbing - and finished off instead with "- you."

Ralph wisely remained silent as the impact of her accusations sunk in. They didn't sit well with him; it felt like a rock in his stomach was reaching up and choking him from inside as he realized what great pain he just caused his dear little friend. It was in this silence that he picked up on soft noises Vanellope was making; soft noises that suspiciously sounded like suppressed tears.

"Vanellope…" He whispered in pained tones, his face crinkling in remorse, "I'm so sorry, I don't know what else I can say to apologize". So instead, he bent down and scooped her up into his arms for a long, slightly sticky, hug.

* * *

_True Word Count for Chapter 1_: 2,602  
_True Word Count for story thus far_: 3,262

* * *

**Review Responses**

_Doodle0505_ – On the one hand, I'm glad you were entertained, but on the other, the last part was meant to be much more depressing… guess I failed on that, crap.

_Sakura Scout_ – oh whoops, didn't consider that it might be misleading in that way. Though for all intensive purposes, she may as well be, in Ralph's mind… dun dun dun…

_Others_ – Thanks for your support!

**A/N**: I have a couple questions for you readers! I'm really none too pleased with the title for this story, so I'll be taking suggestions for a new title until one strikes my fancy. Also, a small mention was made to a character named "Kitty'. She will be an OC you'll meet either in the next chapter or the one after, but I've been going back and forth trying to decide if she should be human, or an actual… kitty…. I feel the kitty would be a bit more comedic, and goodness knows with how depressing the characters have been so far, the story could stand to have some more comic relief characters. However on the flip side, I also need the character to be taken seriously at times, and I'm not sure that would be possible if she's a cat. Thoughts?

And on a side note, I didn't mean to be so depressing and end all the chapters so far in tears T.T


	3. Vanellope's Memento

**Phase I, Level 2** –**Vanellope's Memento**

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..." Ralph murmured repeatedly as he hugged tighter and tighter, vaguely becoming aware that Vanellope had put on quite a few pounds… and was becoming increasingly rough around the edges… Forcing himself to open his eyes, Ralph discovered that the reason for Vanellope's sudden weight gain and sharpness was because she'd become a pile of bricks. He had to blink a few times to get his mind forming more logical thoughts. Once this correction was made he ascertained that he was still atop the penthouse roof, he was holding the pile of bricks he had been standing on, and Vanellope was still gone. It had all been just a dream.

Part of him wanted to shut his eyes back up and return to the land of his dreams where Vanellope was still beside him, albeit also still furious with him. He wished that he could hug her again, if only in his dreams, and he wished, more than all these things, that he could go back to that day and tell himself to hug her like his dreams had auto-corrected. But that's not the way that day went, and he'd spend the rest of his plugged-in life regretting it.

The other part of him reasoned that he had no idea what time it was and he should get the roof cleaned up before the arcade opened, and perhaps try to get some proper sleep in his own bed – though he highly doubted any sleep he got would be of the restful sort. Resigning himself to follow this logic, he grabbed the bricks up in one giant handful and tossed them off the back of the building for the bulldozers to move back to the dump. It only occurred to him after he did this – and before they reached the ground with a resounding thud – that it probably wasn't the wisest thing to do. No matter that he didn't know the time, whatever time it was would no doubt be an ungodly hour to be making such a ruckus, and the inhabitants of the penthouse would no doubt be quite unhappy with whoever aroused them from their sleep. Not wanting anymore bad fortune, Ralph took the quickest route to get down from the roof, and hurled himself off into his mud pile – which also made quite a loud thunk that he didn't think of beforehand.

Bounding off to his house as fast as he could to avoid getting caught, he took a little more caution this time opening and closing his front door so it wouldn't make as much noise. As he made his way to the bathroom to clean off the mud and thus be rid of the evidence, he passed the large hole in his wall. The one that he'd made rushing off to Sugar Rush the day of the tournament. It now occurred to him that entering that way would have spared him the trouble of trying to open and close the door noiselessly. Yeah, he really needed to start thinking before he tried to be covert; he always seemed to choose the noisier, more conspicuous option under pressure.

Finally a bit less on edge after a relaxing shower, the clumsy giant tiptoed as stealthily as a giant could across the threshold of his bedroom until he reached his bed, and managed to crawl into it with relatively few creaks. As predicted, he spent quite a good while tossing and turning, unable to return to his blissful dreams where Vanellope now lived. He vaguely recalled Felix giving him a tip at some point on how to fall asleep, about counting spoons that jumped over the moon and cows that had a bit of a dish fetish or something or other… but since he had none of those he just gazed out his window up at the skylight – he'd designed his house just so he'd have a good few of it – when something caught his eye. There was a vase on the window ledge that contained a single flower. Oh yes, now he remembered… it hadn't popped up in his skewed dream of the events of last week, but it was a product of what really happened that day…

* * *

"But you already missed THIS race, my twentieth anniversary tournament!" Vanellope cried, "EVERYONE in the arcade was there! Everyone but… _you._"

Ralph was about to defend himself, and even opened his mouth to do so, but then stopped himself, noticing that she was making soft sobbing sounds.

He had been thinking what would be the best next move to try and fix this when… "Ralph, this is Gene, over." Ralph's radio chirped, its static ruining his chance to make amends with Vanellope.

Ralph pulled out the walkie-talkie communicator in his pocket and responded, "I'm going to have to call you back, Gene; I'm a little busy right now. Over and out."

"Wait! I've got an angry mob here, you can't just hang up! You need to get over here right now!"

"Look, Gene, I just can't right now, I'm busy! Over. And. OUT!" Ralph shot back, getting angry now. He already had Vanellope giving him a hard time, he didn't need the stress from work too.

"Ralph! You started this business, you promised them an answer for Sugar Rush after the tournament, it's YOUR responsibility to handle this, and I'M going to hold you fully responsible for the damages these no-gamers are inflicting on my penthouse! Good day!" There was an awkward pause as Ralph braced himself for Vanellope's reaction, then Gene radioed in one last time and corrected, "…I mean, over and out!"

Ralph wished he had just turned off the stupid thing when Gene first radioed, or even before coming to Sugar Rush in the first place. But then again, he always got yelled at after he'd turned it off in the past; work could be so demanding.

Dreading the moment of actual eye contact, Ralph slowly, sheepishly, turned his head to meet Vanellope's red-eyed gaze – and he couldn't help but wonder if the redness was from her tears, or if it was from a burning, angry desire to stuff him into a cupcake again.

"_What_ 'Sugar Rush promise' was he talking about, hm?" the dreaded question came.

"Well… a-about that… as you know, I'm head of the HERO – Homeless Employment Relocation Opportunities – operation, and your game, being a class Chickadee – that is, games with little to no chances of death – and, well, with the whole rule that if you die outside your game you die permanently – but then again, you already knew that – that is, well… they'd all been hounding me to get into your game and I had told them WAY back, back when this all started that since you'd just exterminated a Cy-bug invasion and had a MAJOR software reset after Turbo's removal, and with you not being used to your presidential duties and all, I'd said that it needed to be quarantined for the time being until its stability could be assessed. They kept coming back and coming back asking for a definitive date, so I had told them - way back then - that I'd reconsider when the game had its twentieth anniversary. Then I just sort of, kind of, well… _forgot_ about it… If I'd remembered, I would have talked to you much sooner, I swear!" Ralph took a deep breath at the end of his nervous rant, since he'd been too nervous to breathe during it. It had taken so much out of him, he had to kneel to the ground before the lack of air made him dizzy.

Ralph braced himself for the angry words and shouts he expected, but they never came. Instead, Vanellope remained utterly calm during her next words, and that irked him a thousand times more than yelling.

"Glad to know that you think of me only as a business associate, and an inexperienced one at that." Vanellope gently stated in a monotone voice that was so unlike her, it gave Ralph goose bumps. She nonchalantly hopped down from her kart, reached into the front pouch of her teal hoodie, and pulled out a piece of hard candy. She closed the distance between Ralph and herself and held the piece out for him to see. "You probably don't remember what this is, do you?"

Ralph eyed the item. Upon closer inspection, he found it to be shaped like a flower of rather petite stature; he was afraid that if he took hold of it with just his finger and his thumb, he'd crush it into sugar crystals. It was a pretty little thing, with a delicate green stem, curled at one end, and blossoming into brilliant red petals at the other. In the center and at the edges the red color was flayed with a pure white sheen. It was the first time he could recall seeing such an item. Too stunned and fearful to utter any audible response, Ralph only shamefully shook his head to indicate thus.

"It's called a Peppermint Poppy, and it's extremely rare; only three were ever coded. Since you don't remember it, it goes to show you don't remember the circumstances in which we found it, or what it means – what it… _meant_ – to me." Vanellope paused a moment and gazed lovingly at the exquisite flower, then held it out to Ralph, presumably for him take possession of it.

Unsure whether or not he should take it – and what it would mean either way – Ralph just stared at it, unable to move.

When it became apparent that Ralph wasn't going to receive it of his own accord, Vanellope instead took hold of his hands with her tiny ones, placed the candy flower in his palms, and closed his fingertips around it. "I don't need this anymore" was all she said, and then she turned and walked away back towards her castle.

When he finally got over his stupor, he stood up, meaning to go after her and sort this whole mess out. But before he took even one step, Vanellope turned back and uttered one last thing, "Oh, and by the way, I don't want to see you… ever again."

Perhaps he imagined it – indeed he was in such a state of shock he wasn't sure his senses could be trusted – but the last two words sounded like she was choking them out.

With that, Vanellope whirled back around and took off running at full speed.

And that was the last time he ever saw her.

* * *

With that haunting scene playing over and over in his mind, Ralph certainly couldn't sleep now. Instead, he got out of bed and shuffled over to the vase, delicately plucking the Peppermint Poppy out of it. In the dim light from the arcade lights outside his window, it looked even more enchanting. He wondered for a moment if it might even be magical, if he might somehow harness it to bring Vanellope back. He brought the flower up to his nose to inhale of its scent, hoping it might whisk him off to where Vanellope was.

The pleasant smell of mint filled his nostrils and flooded over his senses, bringing images of times past floating through his mind. This was the same scent of the candy cane trees where he first met Vanellope, the same scent as the Mentos in the Diet Cola mountain hideout where he'd helped Vanellope learn how to drive – the memory was so fresh in his mind, as fresh as the mint he was smelling right now, he thought he could feel the bruises on his body from all her crashes as if he'd just gotten them afresh – the same minty smell the kart they built together emanated – among a whole slew of other smells – and of course the same smell the entirety of Sugar Rush reeked of for weeks after they'd saved each other from the Cy-bugs by utilizing every last Mento on the mountain.

Soothed by the minty memories, Ralph decided it would be a good idea to carry this flower with him at all times instead of keeping it in a vase on his windowsill. It made him feel close to Vanellope, somehow, despite the circumstances in which it came into his possession. He concluded it must be a little magical after all, if it could make him feel like that.

Now where to put it? He stuck it in the front pocket of his overalls – no good, getting thrown off a building to land right on your stomach countless times a day would no doubt crush this delicate little flower. He stuck it in his back pocket. There, now it would be safe, so long as he didn't sit down. No problem! …Until the next Bad Anon meeting. He stuck it behind his ear… too… _unmanly_. Suddenly struck with inspiration, he reached down into the collar of his shirt and pulled out a ribbon necklace that supported a sugar cookie on the end of it. With the way he landed in the mud with his neck craned upwards, there was a safe spot between his neck and his chest where even this fragile cookie had survived numerous falls.

He gazed for a moment at the cookie's inscription, "_You're my hero_", it read. He ran a finger over those words of icing, as if they too were magical and could give him the power to save Vanellope. "I don't deserve this medal anymore" he murmured aloud. Threading the cookie off its ribbon, he then placed it in an empty drawer of his desk. He gazed at it with remorse then closed and locked the drawer, throwing the key out his window for the bulldozers to collect.

Gently and deftly, Ralph knotted the ribbon securely around the tiny candy flower – the one memento of Vanellope he was permitting himself to have – and bound the ribbon once more around his neck. Not a moment later, the skylight suddenly shone far brighter as Litwak turned on the arcade's fluorescents for the day.

* * *

"Ralph! So glad to see you!" Clyde greeted as Ralph entered the circle for the usual Bad Anon meeting. It was the first one he'd been to since… he ran a finger over the tiny bump in his shirt at the collar of his neck, and a faint minty scent greeted his nose. Suppressing the memories that threatened to surface once again, Ralph made a forced, rather strained smile to greet Clyde back.

When it came Ralph's turn to share, he braced himself, knowing he'd be pressured for details of his feelings – sometimes these meetings felt like a trip to the shrink – and he wasn't sure he was ready for that. He'd made it this far though, albeit only because Calhoun made him promise to go – it's so much easier to agree to something when you find yourself staring down the barrel of a semi-automatic. Despite being forced to go, he knew Tamora and Felix had the best intentions for doing so. He hadn't emerged from his house in over two months, except for quarter alerts, and they were worried his withdrawal and depression might drive him to do something drastic.

He made it through his tale of his and Vanellope's 'falling out', and how he'd felt since her disappearance – how he still blamed himself for it all – with relatively few issues, though he needed a little prodding to continue from time to time when it got too hard and he felt on the verge of tears. When he had finished, the room was eerily silent, and he thought he may even have heard a sniffle or two.

His suspicions were confirmed when Zangief burst out in sobs. Of all the people there, Ralph had hardly expected _Zangief_ to be the one to get so emotional and cry like a baby – but then again, he _did_ wear that diaper-like piece of apparel…

"I've never heard a more moving story! Zangief is touched and troubled for you, Ralph. It is even more heartbreaking and poetic than crushing man's skull like sparrow's egg between thighs."

"Uh, thanks… I think…?" Ralph said in response to Zangief's… _interesting_ comment.

Acting quickly to smooth over the tension, Clyde hurriedly piped in, "Thank you for sharing, Ralph. I think I speak for all of us when I say we sympathize – and in many cases even empathize as we have tragic back stories of loss that drove us to evil in our code – with you. The first step to healing is to simply let it all out. Is there anything else you need to let out during your time here tonight? Maybe –why- you blame yourself for what happened, even though there was nothing you could do? I think we all were quite shocked when the Sugar Rush console was unplugged without even so much as an 'Out of Order' sign."

"Well… I suppose part of it is because I regret not spending more time with her, and not truly cherishing the times I _did_ have with her." he responded, not vocalizing the part where he thought, _'Like the time I spent with her when she got this flower… I wish I could remember it.'_

He should've listened to Kitty when she warned him he wasn't cherishing the time he spent with Vanellope, and she'd even done it later the day of the tournament, like she knew they'd fought or something.

* * *

"Ralph! Yo, Ralph!" Kitty called as she hustled over to where Ralph was showing some new recruits for HERO around Grand Central Station.

'_Ugh, as if today hasn't been bad enough'_ Ralph thought in dismay, pasting a fake smile on his face to greet this nuisance – er, neighbor. "Can I _help _you, Kitty?" he asked, unable to completely mask his annoyance.

"Don' choo take that kinda tone with _me_, mister, or I'll teach you the meaning of discipline!" Kitty exclaimed in her usual smug tone. At half his height, one would think she might show a _little_ fear talking all high and mighty like that, but nothing phased Kitty. She was what Ralph might have imagined to be one of those 'Gospel Black Mammas' he'd heard some of the kids in the arcade talk about. Like one of those members of society that everyone both loved and feared – especially the kids, for she didn't care if you were _her_ kid or not, if she caught you doing anything 'un-Christian', you were in for a whoopin'. Indeed, even the new recruits were already cowering in fear and beaming with respect for this lady they'd only just met.

Despite Ralph imagining her as a black woman, she was actually blue and ethereal in appearance, much like Surge, and also in uniform, though hers was of the postal variety. She carried in her messenger bag various data down the CAT5 cable of the photo booth, delivering peoples' images to whatever e-mail address they specified. She'd never admit to it, but Ralph was sure she also went through Litwak's e-mail, since all the e-mails she delivered were sent from his account. If you wanted the latest arcade gossip, Kitty was your girl. No one was quite sure how she did it, but she was somehow able to get internal gossip from other games too, that she couldn't possibly have gathered from Litwak's e-mails. No doubt about it, this girl game-hopped for her information, although no one had actually _seen_ her do so, and one of these days, he was going to find out how.

Resisting the urge to snap back – goodness knows he was in a grumpy enough mood to do so – Ralph apologized and asked her what she wanted in a nicer tone just so he could get this over with.

"I just wanted to warn you that you may want to cherish yo' time with that sweet lil' friend o' yours a lil' more, you won't be able to much longer – "

"I know!" Ralph cut her off in a sudden burst of rage, not wanting to recall the events of his and Vanellope's fight and her decision to end their friendship, let alone reconcile the fact that it seemed Kitty had been listening the whole time.

"You do?" Kitty asked in confusion, "Then I went through that _horrendous_ ordeal to verify the serial number for nothin'!?" she raved, though Ralph didn't pay much attention, he didn't really care about the details of any 'ordeals' she may have had putting her nose where it didn't belong.

Stomping off in frustration, Kitty made her way back to her photo booth, still ranting and raving about her 'ordeal', not noticing a speeding sonic that was crossing her path. "Watch out!" He called, watching in surprise as she narrowly escaped her would-be attacker by leaping over him and landing on all fours… as a cat. So that's how she did it… He'd keep a wary eye out for felines from now on.

* * *

Something stuck out to him as odd as he recalled this encounter. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, but the fact that she had said 'serial number' didn't make much sense to him in hindsight. What had he and Vanellope fought about that involved a serial number? He remembered their fight all too vividly and a serial number was NOT part it.

Ralph's eyes widened as realization suddenly dawned on him. Had Kitty known about Vanellope's abrupt departure all along?!

Much to the surprise of all the other Bad Anon members, who were becoming worried during Ralph's silent reprieve in narrative, he stood up and announced that he had to leave immediately.

"But, Ralph!" Clyde called after him, "We haven't even said the Bad Guy Affirmation!"

Ralph ignored him as he ran off through the blue tunnels of the PAC-MAN game, he didn't feel like he could truthfully say "There's no one I'd rather be than me" anyway. Besides, he had a cat to catch.

* * *

_True Word Count for Chapter 2_: 3,368  
_True Word Count for story thus far_: 6,630

* * *

**A/N**: If you've been following this story before now, you may have noticed that the title has now changed from _"Problematic Programmatic Thesis_" to its current title, "_Disconnection_". The summary was also re-worded as well, though the content is more or less the same. The reason I changed the title was because I never liked the first one and I simply needed a title in order to post the story and see if there was any interest before continuing. Now that there has been a growing interest and I've decided to keep writing for it, the title had to go. Now, I'm still only somewhat satisfied with this title, so I'd love to hear any suggestions you guys may have to offer (Or, if for some reason you absolutely love that title, feel free to let me know if you're in favor of keeping it). Sorry if the title change caused any confusion; I assure you that you haven't lost your mind… yet… you may by the end of this story though! Bwahahaha!

**Review Responses**:

_Sakura Scout_ - Thanks for the ideas! Yeah, it's that noun after the "Programming" part that has me stumped…

_Guest_ – "How are are Vanellope and Ralph in this story?", you asked. This is a loaded question. "How" could mean that of a simple "How do you do?" to which I'd have to respond that they're doing well, considering the circumstances… being in the clutches of a crazed fan-writer whose currently subjecting them to the worst tortures one could possibly face. But I think the more likely "How" that you meant was that of a relationship – if this is not the case either, I apologize for wasting your time with the following response: the nature of their relationship is on my agenda to explore in this story. We're all already familiar with the brother/sister type of the movie, and I plan to explore a few others – you may have already picked up on the slight father/daughter dynamics they've been having in these beginning chapters, a classic 'daddy doesn't show up to lil billy's ball games' plot point – but as to which ones I'll focus on, you'll just have to wait and see. As for which one will be the final winner in this journey… well, we'll BOTH have to just wait and see; I have yet to discover where the characters are taking me on their adventure…

_Others_ – Thanks for the compliments! I hope to keep writing further chapters you'll all enjoy!

A special 'Thank You' goes out to _CraftyKeronian_, who inspired me to expand Kitty's character into what it is now!


	4. Bonus: The Muffin Man

**Congratulations, Player 1, You've unlocked a new character and cake...**

"Don' you be telling 'em 'bout no cake; it's a LIE!"

**Kitty, you will kindly stay within your memory allocation while player 1 is actively engaging the system...**

"Player 1? Oh, Heeyyy~ Kitty here to announce that you've just unlocked a bonus level! Congratulations, you're in for some fabulicious content, starring yours truly!"

"I'll take over from here, computer; it'll be more personal with the author/coder addressing the audience... Thanks to all you wonderful readers, this story has now received over 1,000 views! I wanted to share a little special something to thank you; I feel incredibly honored at your support!"

"And how much more special can you get, than by reading all about wonderful, _beautiful_ me!"

"Uh, Kitty… technically, you just play a small part in this content… You're not even the character mentioned in the chapter title..."

"Shut yo' mouth, gurl! Yo' crazy!"

"…If I weren't arguing with my own OC right now, I'd have better grounds to rebuff that claim…"

"Well git on with it, gurl! You can't keep 'em waiting forever! I'm sure they're just DYING to read more about my adventure… staring the one and only _moi_!

"Ugh… fine. So I just wanted to explain this chapter a little bit before you got into it. Chronologically, it comes inbetween chapters one and two, but I decided I didn't want to break up the flow of the story from Ralph's point of view, particularly because it's a rather depressed one. This chapter was intended to be more comic relief than anything (and a bit of romance on the side, considering it's one of the categories I listed this story under, and I figured I shouldn't wait for too many chapters in before starting that up), so I just didn't want to make ya'll into bipolar readers, playing with your emotions so. I was actually going to scrap this chapter entirely, and move out the necessary parts to other chapters (I already did move some of the important chronological details into chapters one and two), but when I saw the opportunity to add it back in as bonus material, I couldn't resist! I had so much fun writing this chapter, and even got a bit carried away… I shortened it up as best I could, but it's still rather long… too many characters to play with! And they're all just so – "

"GURL! Wouldja just SHUT UP already! Geesh! They don' wanna hear 'bout your boring thought process, they're all waitin' to see ME! And I'M 'bout ready to fall asleep here! Can't a gurl get some sugar!?"

"I thought you said you'd have enough sugar from the events of this chapter..."

"Don' choo make me come over there and scratch some sense into 'at head o' yours!"

"Ok! ok! Look, I'm starting now! Don't hurt me... *whimper*"

* * *

**Bonus Level**: **The Muffin Man**

"Alright, Minty, is that everyone?" Taffyta inquired as she opened the doors to the presidential throne room, granting entrance to a handful of racers.

"Nearly. Rancis said he had some urgent business to attend to and would catch up as soon as he could."

"Figures. More likely than not he's off trying to charm some random piece of candy with his dashing good looks and… wicked smile…"

"Uhhh Taffyta…? You okay? Your eyes are looking a bit sugar-glazed over…" Minty smirked.

"Erm, yes, perfectly fine!" Taffyta stuttered, shaking herself out of it. "Alright, everyone! In case you didn't know, Vanellope has been acting a bit _strange_ lately, and I petitioned to have this presidential meeting so we can confront her about it and get to the bottom of the issue, before it affects us all!"

All the other racers nodded in agreement, save Rancis, who was still absent, and Candlehead, who was clothed in her usual dazed expression, seemingly quite fascinated with the assortment of shiny displays lining the walls.

"Is it true she wiped out on Twizzler's turn?" Jubileena inquired, her cherry stem wilting with worry.

Whispers broke out among the other racers, discussing their theories on the rumor; that is, minus Candlehead, who was now more interested in a particular display – a jeweled cereal box upon a pedestal.

"I'm afraid that's true." Taffyta admitted, "but we can't let it drag us down! We just celebrated our twentieth anniversary and we will continue to thrive!" Taffyta paused awkwardly; she had always been more for smack talk than for pep talks, so she wasn't entirely sure what to say next. She was saved from having to decide when Candlehead exclaimed, "The royal cereal is alive!"

Thinking she'd finally lost her marbles – er, jelly beans -, the other racers turned to see what the heck Candlehead could be talking about, and to their surprise, she was partially right. The royal cereal box was moving about on its own as Candlehead clutched it tight, as if it had an aversion to being in the arms of stupidity.

Now, under normal circumstances, the racers might be appalled that someone dared to touch one of the royal emblems without the explicit permission of the president, but given the fact that one of them had seemingly come to life, this hardly crossed their minds. Instead, they all encircled Candlehead and the box, muttering amongst themselves as to what should be done about it.

Swizzle offered an answer first, exclaiming, "Let's open it!"

Before Taffyta could protest, the other racers joined Swizzle in his chant, prompting Candlehead to open the lid. In an instant, the cat was out of the bag – er, box. It nearly escaped too, if it hadn't been for Gloyd's quick thinking. The would-be escapee was now unhappily trapped under Gloyd's ginormous pumpkin hat, and letting its frustration be known audibly.

"Good job, Gloyd! Now let's just—" Taffyta started, but was cut off as the doors to the presidential hall began to open once more. When a teal and black figure emerged into Taffyta's peripheral, she commaned as quietly as she could, "Quick! Return the box to its pedestal! And not one word about what's under Gloyd's hat!" Goodness knows she didn't want to trouble Vanellope any further, beyond whatever it was that was already ailing her.

As Vanellope entered, she stopped short when she saw the gathering of the racers in her presidential hall. She'd been hoping to just go to her bedroom and cry in silence after the break up she'd just had with Ralph. Looks like she'd have to put on a good face a little while longer. Rubbing her eyes a bit to clear up the remaining moisture, the president made her best attempt to look normal and cheerfully greeted her guests, "Hey guys… what's up?"

"We uh… we gathered to address your behavior… as of late" Taffyta responded a bit nervously, trying to stay on track while she snuck sideways glances at Gloyd's hat on the floor, hoping the sound of her voice was enough to drown out its muffled protests.

"Oh… what behavior?" Vanellope asked innocently, though she was pretty sure she knew what they meant… she just didn't want to talk about it.

"We're worried for your sake as well as ours, that with the way you've been acting, you may be in need of a…" Taffyta blanked out, they really hadn't gotten this far in their discussions on what to do about Vanellope, but there wasn't any time to waste with the current 'situation' under Gloyd's hat. She had to think of something fast! Or goodness knows Vanellope might start asking questions, and Candlehead was sure to blurt. Sometimes Taffyta couldn't get over the irony that despite being the only one with a light atop their head, Candlehead wasn't anywhere near the brightest of the bunch. The girl seriously needed a doctor or something… "Yeah, a doctor, that's it!", she exclaimed, glad she now had something to say to Vanellope.

Vanellope cocked an eyebrow at Taffyta's strange words, and come to think of it, actions. She'd never seen Taffyta act that nervous since the day their game was reset after King Candy's dethroning. She had been just as nervous asking for forgiveness as she looked now. She began to assess the other racers; they too, looked rather uneasy. Well, Candlehead looked normal, but when had she ever not? It was then she noticed Gloyd crouched down to the floor, like he'd been caught in the act of picking up his hat when she walked in, and for some reason was under the impression that she'd behead him if he finished the act.

Following her gaze, Taffyta exclaimed, "Yes! We are all unanimously in agreement that you should see a doctor, right now! Right guys?"

The others chorused their agreement, and then the comment after made Taffyta's heart skip a beat.

"Wait, what doctor?" Candlehead asked naively.

"You know… THE doctor..." Taffyta prodded, making all sorts of eye signals at Candlehead in the hopes the clueless girl might actually get a clue and drop it. It's a good thing she didn't set her hopes too high, 'cause sure enough, Candlehead shot back, "Doctor who?"

"No, honey, you're getting confused." Snowanna piped in, trying to help Taffyta out, "Doctor Who only works on the British-manufactured games."

"Wait, which doctor?" Candlehead asked, which only led to Snowanna's confusion.

"No, it's not a witch doctor either…" Snowanna mumbled, glancing over at Taffyta with a look that said _'I'm sorry; I tried.'_

Taffyta was at her wit's end, when Jubileena came to her rescue. "Why not go see the Muffin Man?" she offered.

"The Muffin Man?" Vanellope asked, only half paying attention. She was determined to find out why Gloyd was acting the most peculiar of all, and refused to take her eyes off his hat.

"What muffin man?" Candlehead chimed back in, making Taffyta cringe, but nonetheless she pressed on, addressing Vanellope exclusively, "Don't you know the Muffin Man?"

"Mmhmm, the one who lives on Cherry Lane?" Vanellope verified, craning her neck to get a better angled view on that hat.

"Is the Muffin Man made out of muffins?" Candlehead asked curiously.

"Why don't you take Vanellope there yourself and find out?" she practically hissed. A similar hiss was heard from Gloyd's direction.

Gloyd coughed in an attempt to cover up the noise, which only drew more attention to himself. "Maybe Gloyd should go instead, he sounds like he could be coming down with something himself." Vanellope offered.

"No!" Taffyta yelled in exasperation, then recomposed herself, "I mean, no… the president's health is more important and there's less than an hour left before opening time. So you and Candlehead should leave right now before he closes up shop!" Taffyta insisted, practically shoving them out the door.

"I'll go with you, it's right up my alley!" Jubileena said with a smile when Vanellope still looked reluctant. This way, she could ensure Vanellope didn't double back around.

Taffyta mouthed '_THANK YOU!'_ as Jubileena passed, to which Jubileena just gave a look that said '_You owe me big time_'.

As soon as the door was closed, Gloyd picked up his hat and attempted to restrain the creature within.

"So… what is it?" Adorabeezle asked.

No one answered, since none of them had ever seen such a thing in Sugar Rush before. It was black and furry, four-legged and quite strong for its size, with two ears atop its head shaped like triangles, a long tail… and somehow, it was irresistibly adorable.

"I'm not sure, but for some reason I have the sudden urge to take pictures of it, write misspelled captions on them, and show them to all my friends… then eat a cheezburger." Crumbelina noted. A few others nodded their agreement.

"So… can we keep it?" Adorabeezle inquired hopefully.

Taffyta concluded the girl must be as crazy as Candlehead, but then she noticed that the others also held pleading looks on their faces. What was so captivating about this… thing? She took a second glance at the creature – her first mistake – and noticed that it was no longer mad and complaining. It apparently switched up its tactics like a game of good cop, bad cop, and was now in good cop mode. It was happily curled up like a baby, cradled in Gloyd's arms, looking rather… cute… and… irresistibly fluffy… so fluffy, she thought she might die. It was then she noticed it was emitted an odd sound, like the soft purring of an idling engine that just had a tune up and was running smoother than buttercream. She looked at the face of the creature and into its eyes – her second mistake – and felt she was being hypnotized by them. They were just so big and pleading… how could she say no?

Snapping out of it, Taffyta tried not to sound too won over when she announced "Oh, I _guess_ so… but only until Vanellope gets back and we can discuss it with her!" She doubted very highly that the others heard her addendum, for they had erupted in a chorus of joy after the first part of her announcement.

"We have to name it!" Snowanna exclaimed.

"No, wait! You can't, you'll get too attached!" Taffyta protested, but was drowned out by the others shouting their approval.

"I've got the most experience, I should name it!" Minty shouted above the others.

"No way! You always pick the lousiest names!" Crumbelina accused.

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"In all fairness," Adorabeezle interrupted, "you –did- name your clones '_Torvald Batterbute_' and '_Sticky Wipplesnit_'."

"Oh, like yours was any better, Miss Nougestia Brumblestain's Original." Minty shot back, sticking her tongue out to heighten her insult.

"Hey! Nougestia is a noble name! My palette swap seemed to like when I gave it to her…" Adorabeezle defended, trailing off as it occurred to her that Nougestia's thoughts were technically spawned from her own.

"I think we can all agree here that I have the most awesome name among all the racers, so I should have the best capacity to bestow a name worthy of this creature." The Great Swizzle Malarkey said all high and mighty. As one might predict, this led to a chorus of protests from the others, who all thought they too had the best name. Getting tired of all the ruckus, the creature began to fidget restlessly and meow in protest. Noticing this and going into overprotective momma mode, Taffyta yelled out over the din…

"SILENCE! You're scaring the poor thing!"

Grinning a smile of self-satisfaction at her success gaining control over the now-quiet room, Taffyta continued, "Now, since you all can't make up your minds, _I'll_ simply have to name it myself."

"But you've never once made and named a clone!" Minty protested.

"Of course not. I'm already perfect; if I cloned myself and allowed them to enter the roster, ya'll wouldn't stand a chance! It's only out of my great benevolence and mercy that I've spared you all the humiliation."

"Hah! I don't believe you're even capable of making your own clone!"

"Don't be silly, if the need ever does arrive, I've already got the design and name picked out."

"Well then prove it; let's hear it!"

"While she couldn't be quite as perfect as me – goodness knows perfection can't be duplicated – she would nearly be, with a pink lemonade theme to contrast my strawberry one. I would then bestow upon her the most regal of names…" She paused for dramatic effect; she smiled when she noted they all leaned in a little closer… "That name being: _Lemona Lisa._" Oooo that was good. The mood was SO dramatic, they were all struck dumb. She reveled in the silence, allowing their inferior minds to process the greatness of hers.

Snowanna couldn't take it anymore; she was the first to break the silence, "Pfffttttt HAHAHAHAHA!" She was soon joined by the others.

Taffyta stared in shock at their reaction, surely, their minds weren't _that_ far gone that they'd laugh at the greatness of her idea.

"Lemona Lisa!" Gloyd exclaimed, "It sounds like the title of some boring piece of artwork only sour adults would like!"

* * *

"So are you sure this 'Muffin Man' is a qualified doctor?" Vanellope asked apprehensively, secretly hoping he might be certified in psychiatry, that's the only kind of doctor she needed right now. She was already thinking she must be crazy to push Ralph away like that. But on the same token… she'd been hurt more than loved by Ralph as of late, and she felt she might break if she didn't do something drastic to protect herself. Pushing him away seemed the best solution; out of sight, out of mind, right? She'd be happier this way, no longer getting her hopes up all the time. And she'd been so preoccupied with said hopes, her mind was always full of thoughts of Ralph, and she felt she wasn't being fair to the others in her game; this was supposed to be her job after all, maybe she should start taking it as seriously as Ralph took his. Oops, she was doing it again, letting Ralph dominate her thoughts.

"Oh sure! Every game has a doctor or two, and the Muffin Man is ours." Jubileena answered with a smile. When Vanellope didn't respond, Jubileena prodded further, "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Hm?" Vanellope mumbled, shaking herself from deep thoughts once more. Drat, she did it again.

"You've been so pensive so far, it's like you're in your own little world; and unlike Candlehead's, yours doesn't seem to be very happy."

Why did her subjects have to be so perceptive? Vanellope took a moment to debate whether or not she should open up to Jubileena. Well, Jubileena had always been one of the sweetest racers, even when she was getting bullied back in the day. She had a trustworthy aura about her too. Sure, why not? Maybe opening up to her team mates more was part of her job too.

Jubileena listened attentively as Vanellope recounted the events of her little tiff with Ralph, nodding and prodding for how she felt from time to time. Maybe Jubileena should be the doctor of this game, at least the psychiatric one. This whole opening up thing was easier than she originally thought; she didn't even notice the time pass and was surprised when Jubileena announced, "Well, here we are!"

Vanellope glanced at Jubileena with a look of uncertainty as she raised her fist to knock on the doctor's door. When Jubileena gave her a reassuring nod, she rapped her knuckles on the door's surface, then immediately regretted it. The thing was hard as iron! She stepped back a bit, taking in the sight of the house, which appeared to be made of cookie sheets and cupcake molds. She really should've noted that before sacrificing her knuckles.

"Hellloooooooooooooooo!" Candlehead called when the door didn't open immediately, then called excitedly, "What's that!?" She was pointing to the roof, so Jubileena and Vanellope followed its direction and figured she must be curious about the chimney stack. Smoke was emanating from it, so someone must be home…

"There's no way I'm knocking on that door again." Vanellope protested when Jubileena gave her a look that said '_well knock again, he's obviously home!_'

"Oo! I'll do it!" Candlehead volunteered, running excitedly at the door.

"No, don't!" Vanellope and Jubileena called, afraid that a collision might cost Candlehead what precious brain cells she had left.

Candlehead was spared when the door opened the moment she would have made contact with it, which resulted in the poor owner of the house getting tackled to his own floor.

"Hi! Who're you and whatcha doin' on the floor?" Candlehead asked innocently.

"Uh… I'm Dr. Muffin Man…" he responded, still a little dazed as he looked up at his attacker.

"Oh! Are you made of muffins?"

He was planning on making some snide remark along the lines of '_You should know, you're sitting on me, after all_', but that's when he noticed his additional guests that had entered his house a little more calmly.

He addressed them, hoping they'd be easier to communicate with, "Your friend here – " he indicated the girl still pinning him - "appears to be… _half-baked_. I presume that's why you're here? I can stick her in the oven a few minutes."

Jubileena giggled, "Nooo, sir, her head was baked to a crisp long ago by the candle atop it."

"Besides," Vanellope piped in, "we all love Candlehead just the way she is." This sentiment brought the first real smile to her face that day since… no, she wouldn't fall into that trap again, she wouldn't let Ralph dominate her thoughts anymore. She was here, having a nice outing with Candlehead and Jubileena, and Ralph wasn't here to take that from her – not in body, not in her mind either.

The doctor had to wonder if they all enjoyed getting tackled whenever they opened their own doors. "So uh, Miss Candlehead, would you mind allowing me off the floor so I can properly greet my guests?"

"Hey! My name's 'Candlehead', not "Miscandlehead'! And I'm not going to let you up until you answer my question! Are you, or are you not, made out of muffins!?"

"No, I'm not, Mis—I mean Candlehead." the doctor self-corrected, smiling in amusement over the racer straddling him.

"Oh… So are you the doctor then?"

"Well, I am of British heritage, but I'm not THE doctor, by any means, Mi- Candlehead. Now will you please allow me to gain my footing?"

"Oh, you're no fun." Candlehead mused with a pout, reluctantly dismounting the doctor.

When he'd finally been allowed to stand up, Vanellope studied his appearance, for she'd never met him before – another area of her job she'd been slacking on. She had been expecting an aged tall man, like the ones the arcade kids talked about disdainfully. Apparently kids shouldn't like the doctor, but Vanellope was already thinking that she liked this one, he had a pleasant personality so far. He was of the same cookie-cutter avatar build as all the other racers of sugar rush, so he appeared to be the same age, with light skin and dark eyes and hair. He was sporting a tweed suit that looked like it was drizzled with caramel rather than woven with yarn, and had an unmistakable muffin top. Like all the racers who miraculously stayed skinny as a twig despite their sugar saturated diets, his muffin top was not an indication of plumpness, but rather his standard issue head gear. Similar in size to Glyod's pumpkin head, the Muffin Man's muffin atop his head was rather large, and made to look more like a baker's cap, which was probably appropriate since he had already offered to bake Candlehead.

"Ah, allow me to start over and properly introduce myself… with some dignity." the doctor stated, breaking Vanellope's assessment of his appearance, "I am the Muffin Man, MMD." He gave a little bow and held a hand out to take Vanellope's, "and to whom do I owe the pleasure?"

"Uh… I'm Vanellope…", she replied, suddenly feeling nervous and a bit flushed. Why had she never met this charming fellow before?

"Ah, Miss Vanellope, enchanted to make your acquaintance." With that, he planted a kiss on her hand before releasing it and resuming normal standing posture once more. "What can I do for you, Miss Vanellope, today?"

'_You can do that again…_' Vanellope thought; she had liked the way that felt. WAY better than how she felt earlier today, when she and Ralph had fough- drat, no more thinking of Ralph now!

Jubileena spared her the embarrassment of having to stammer for words and answered for her, "Vanellope has been distracted a lot lately and we were hoping you could take a look at her."

"I am looking at her, you don't need to ask me twice." he responded with a smirk, making Vanellope blush. Goodness, this was embarrassing.

"It could be a classic case of A.D.D., goodness knows this game has the sugar supply for it." he amended in all seriousness, as if he noticed he was making the president uncomfortable.

"What's an 'a-dee-dee'?" Candlehead asked, before getting distracted by some shiny baking utensils she just spotted on the table.

"Why, Miss Candlehead, you're a prime example of it." He laughed in response as she began to prod a mechanical egg beater. When she discovered she could make it 'whir', she excitedly grabbed it up and started running about while operating it, pretending she was a submarine or something or other. "I stand corrected… yours no doubt progressed to A.D.H.D. long ago!"

"I can prescribe some 'Batterall' to combat the symptoms." the doctor continued, turning to address his more attentive audience, "though I must say, Miss Vanellope, you seem perfectly cognizant to me."

"…huh?" Vanellope responded, broken from another reverie… she'd been a little lost in his dark chocolate eyes.

At that moment, Candlehead came doubling back around on her little hand mixer rampage and knocked the poor doctor to the floor again.

* * *

Taffyta wasn't sure how long they'd been arguing, but they were getting nowhere. In the midst of the arguing, she thought she heard the sound of a door opening.

"Hey! It's getting away!" Gloyd announced, which stopped the arguing pronto.

The creature had seen its opportunity to escape the madness and was running towards a now open door where Rancis was now entering to finally joini their meeting – fashionably late.

"Close the doors!" Taffyta cried, but she was too late, the furball was between his legs and out the door before he had time to process her command.

"After it!" Swizzle battle cried, and Rancis had to dive out of the way before he was stampeded by six crazed racers.

Taffyta approached and offered a hand to help Rancis back on his feet, "You ok?"

"Yeah." He replied, though obviously a little miffed that his hair and outfit were all askew now, "What was that all about?"

"Uh, Candlehead found something… weird… in the royal cereal box."

"Really? It was in the royal cereal box? What would a kat want with cereal?"

"A… 'kat'? That's what it was?"

"Yeah, didn't you know?"

"I've never seen such a creature in Sugar Rush before."

"No, I don't think I have either, but as driver of the Kit Kat Kart, it's in my code to know. I assumed at least you and Vanellope would also have it in your code, being more forefront characters."

Taffyta was flattered, well, _she_ knew her vast importance in this game, but most of the others didn't seem to get it as they mocked her choice of a color palette name. At least Rancis seemed to get that she was just as important as the president. "Want to help me investigate the damage on the royal cereal box?" she invited hopefully.

"Sure, why not? It'd be far more interesting to do that than going on a wild goose chase after a cat."

_Interesting_, he had said. Taffyta beamed and led him over to the display that held the royal cereal box.

* * *

Swizzle Malarkey led the charge, followed closely by Gloyd and the girls as they pursued the furry thing up the rainbow bridge. "It means to escape!" He cried, wishing there was some way to cut it off, but being that it was a bridge, that wasn't really possible. They pursued it all the way down the tunnel, hardly noticing that they were leaving their game in the process.

As soon as they emerged in grand central station, the fluffball did a 180 and stared them down, which was quite a feat for something a quarter of the height of the item it was staring down.

"Aw, you scared it!" Crumbelina cried, stepping toward it. "Come here, come to aunty Crumbelina..." she cooed.

"No! Ya'll come HERE!" The animal suddenly declared, though when Crumbelina blinked, she wasn't staring at an animal anymore, but a pair of shoes. When she looked up, she was looking into the face of a rather cross postal worker, who was now rolling up her sleeves. Some base instinct she couldn't explain told her to run, however she was too slow; they all were.

"Imma whoop ya'll good!" the lady declared menacingly, cracking her knuckles.

* * *

"Well, nothing seems to be wrong with it at least." Taffyta declared, turning the box over in her hands once more. As she flipped it around one last time to be sure, the top popped open.

"Wait! Let me see that." Rancis called, thinking he saw something. Once in his possession, he peered inside. No good, it was empty. Wait…

"Look here." he called to Taffyta, who seemed more than happy to lean in for a closer appraisal, "There's some writing on the inside…"

"It says…" Taffyta narrated, "Serial# 2875473. What's that mean?"

* * *

"Good day, girls! DO come again." The Muffin Man called, waving at the threesome from his doorstep.

"Oh I plan to, Stinkface!" Vanellope called giddily, then immediately regretted it; the doctor looked positively appalled at her sudden potty mouth.

"Well, I never!" he huffed at the insulting address, and withdrew into his house.

"He's not really your type anyway, Vanellope." Jubileena soothed, noting Vanellope's downcast expression.

It occurred to the president that deep down she already knew this, so why had she allowed herself to entertain the thoughts she had? After a couple minutes, it finally dawned on her; it was just the attention, she liked the attention he had suddenly given her, when she had gone so long without any. It really was for the best she cut ties with Ralph, why waste time on someone who never had time for her? She had to find herself some friends she didn't have to beg for attention from. She may as well start with Jubileena.

"Hey Juby, there's still some time before the arcade opens, do you wanna go for a swim in a root beer float? I was thinking we could all use a little fun after all this trouble."

"Sure, I'd love to! Candlehead will no doubt love to try out her new toy to make herself into a motorboat!" Jubileena consented, pointing to a rather excited Candlehead, who was still enthralled with her new egg beater.

* * *

_True Word Count for bonus chapter_: 4,575  
_True Word Count for story thus far_: 11,205

* * *

**A/N:** I'm going to really need to start cutting back on word counts, they've gotten longer and longer as the story's taken off... will just have to start splitting up chapters I suppose!


	5. Replaced

**Phase I, Level 3: Replaced**

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! The shots echoed throughout the penthouse, startling its occupants. None more perhaps than Felix, who was unfortunately the closest to the source of the sound and hadn't the reflexes to cover his ears beforehand.

"What's wrong!?" He cried, perhaps louder than necessary, for he could not hear himself no matter how loud he called.

"There's something at the door." his wife answered – in a tone that said 'shut up or be shot.' - looking particularly dynamite in her bedclothes, muscles tensed and poised to kill whichever poor soul was at the door… Or perhaps she already had succeeded, for there was now dead silence.

"Honeybuns… there's no need to get so tense over a visitor, even if it's unusual to get one at this hour; bless my stars, you may even have permanently killed a character if they're not from this game! I thought we were working towards getting you a bit less trigger-happy, love…"

The sergeant softened her grip on her firearm then; she was trying to do better, for Felix's sake. They had many a discussion on the topic; her wanting to protect him at all costs, he wanting her to relax and take life slow, without inadvertently taking the lives of innocent non-cy-bug characters. Yet she couldn't shake the boding feeling that this wasn't a normal visitor, and was one she needed to fear.

"I'm sorry, Felix, but… it just didn't sound like a normal 'knock'. And I'm not going to put down my gun until I investigate whatever's left on the other side of that door!" Ignoring her husband's protests that it was probably just some random Nicelander, Calhoun cautiously approached the bullet riveted door and pulled it open.

"Jeepers! You killed him!" Felix cried, noting the crumpled heap on the floor – unfortunately not that of a Nicelander. The cadaver was of a taller and lanker build, and despite the fact that it was quite obviously dead, it looked like it hadn't exactly been the perfect picture of health BEFORE his wife put it out of its misery. "What are we going to do!? This is terrible! My greatest fear has come true, and we've been the cause of an out of game character's permanent deletion!"

"Calm down, honey, he was dead long before I shot him." Calhoun explained. Even if she didn't have an intricate subroutine in her code that allowed her to estimate the time of death within the accuracy of half an hour, she still would have been able to make that deduction – the thing looked like it'd been dead for days, so how did it end up here? She made a move to turn the body over so she could ID its face, when it suddenly reanimated itself and sat bolt upright – sending Felix up the frightened scale and landing him somewhere in between bedwetting and near death experience.

Calhoun immediately resumed fighting stance, moving in-between the dead man and HER man – who was looking so scared she thought he might actually wet himself, or even pass out.

"You ver' mean lady! Why you shoot Zombie? Zombie on'y wan'ed ta 'liver a message." He asked in his usual lisp. One shouldn't complain too much about it though; truth be told, he spoke rather well for a being whose jaw was undergoing extreme rigor mortis.

"Whah… what message?" Calhoun stammered, a little off guard that he'd survived three bullet wounds – which only seemed to be making his ribcage a little drafty – and who knows what else before.

"F'om Clyde, 'bout 'ur frien', Ralph!"

Felix's frightened factor immediately plummeted and he rushed past his wife to welcome his guest with a little more than bullets. "Oh, hi, Zombie! Ralph has told us all about you and the other Bad Anon guys! I'm so terribly sorry about those bullet holes, would you care for some pie?"

"Nah… Zombie no eat sweet t'ings, only spee' up decay rate. Coul' ya he'p me ge' my arm back?"

Felix cringed at the request and looked to his wife to help out; she obliged. It was then he noticed the appendage dangling from the front of his door, with a death grip on an ax that was now wedged in between the golden plates indicating their room number. He knew he could fix it, but he really wanted to just replace the whole door after a sight like that.

"Sorry about that, Mr., uh, Zombie." Calhoun apologized as she yanked the arm – ax and all – off the door, "I guess it was your ax here that made the strange 'Thunk' noise on the door which alarmed me enough to shoot". She also guessed it was Clyde's ever insightful decision to send the un-dead to her door rather than any other Bad Anon member who might've joined the leagues of the undead after an encounter with her. He'd even invited her to see the psychiatrist doctor of his game, to be 'counseled on the need to relax and put the gun down from time to time'.

Reunited with his arm, Zombie relayed Clyde's message – with many a lisp - to inform the two that Ralph had run off from Bad Anon, and didn't seem like he'd be returning to Fix-It Felix Jr. The couple bade their undead guest goodbye then began to discuss what should be done in light of the message he'd just delivered.

"I say a stint at boot camp oughta straighten him right out." Tamora suggested. After all, she'd been able to persuade him thus far on the road to recovery in a rather military fashion.

"Look, peach-blossom, I know Ralph's been hanging out with your men a lot, but… he's just not programmed to be military. He may be tough on the outside, but I've been learning that he's really just a teddy bear on the inside, and trying to force him to get over it would only destroy him."

"Then what should we do, send him to a Build-A-Bear repair shop?"

"I… don't know. Maybe we just need to BE there for him; be supportive. We can start by going to look for him, and letting him know he can come to us whenever he needs something."

* * *

"What's all the ruckus about!? Cain't a gurl get any SLEEP 'round here!?" Kitty complained as she opened the door in response to the pounding upon it. When she saw the burly figure in orange and brown standing on her doorstep, she just put a hand on her hip and made a face like 'this had BETTER be worth my time; or you're in for a WORLD of pain!'

"Kitty, I'm sorry to disturb your uh… beauty sleep, but I came to ask what you were talking about when you said 'serial number' a couple months ago." Ralph could tell by the look on her face that she didn't consider this worth her time, and if he didn't make his case – fast -, he'd end up like Zombie.

"I thought choo knew 'bout that already!" Kitty exclaimed, indignant. He blew her off before when she brought it up, how dare he suddenly care about it NOW, when she was trying to sleep!

"I know, I'm sorry, I was wrong; I should have heard you out." He stammered, though glad that his humble tactic seemed to be paying off – at least Kitty no longer looked like she was going to murder him… now it only looked like she wanted to beat him to within an inch of death.

"Look… I uh, I had a fight with… with _her_ that day, and I thought you were referring to that – but I realize now that you weren't – And…" Ralph hesitated, not wanting to be so open and sincere with Kitty, but he had to soften her up some way, and he was betting on her having a soft side. So, here goes nothing… "I know she said that she… that she…" ok, so this wasn't as easy as he thought… tears threatened to overflow the water ducts of his eyes as he recalled the painful circumstances of his and Vanellope's parting once again. It seemed there'd be no stopping them now, so he may as well press on, "That she never wanted to see me again… but I'd give ANYTHING to see her, even just once more, if only to apologize… so please… will you help me?" When he wiped the water from his eyes he was pleased to see that Kitty indeed DID have a soft side... at least for a moment… then it was gone.

"I done TOL' ya ta cherish yo' time with 'at adorable lil' cupcake! But did you listen to me? Noooooooooo. You brought this on yo'self, fool! I oughta slap you silly, in the hopes of slapping some sense into 'at head o' yours!"

"I know! So could you just please slap me; then help me out?" Ralph blurted, then regretted when he saw the look on Kitty's face. Kitty liked the sound of that offer.

* * *

"He wasn't at Tappers." Felix reported.

"I have my guys checking the upstairs units, and between me and the other Bad Anon volunteers, we've checked just about all the units on this level. I really hope he's not in my game; weeding through without disturbing the cy-bugs would be messy business – to put it lightly."

After Calhoun's debriefing, Felix was beginning to get rather worried – both for Ralph, and for themselves, should they need to go over the world of Hero's Duty with a fine tooth comb to look for him.

At that moment, Calhoun's communicator buzzed in, "This is Private Ryan. The upper deck is all clear, over."

"That leaves Litwak's Photo Funia and Hero's Duty" Calhoun mused to herself, "Guess we should take on Kitty's photobooth first, and hopefully avoid a trip to Hero's Duty".

"Really? 'Cause I was actually thinking a visit with the Cy-bugs would be a bit more pleasant." Felix responded in all sincerity. That woman gave him the heebie-jeebies.

"What? I thought you liked tough women." Calhoun teased with a wink.

"I guess I do like an element of tough, but at least _you're_ easy on the ears – not to mention the eyes."

"Alright, enough buttering me up; we're going to Kitty's photobooth first, so suck it up and take it like a man!"

"So long as I'm _your_ man, Buttercup."

Really, sometimes her husband was so sappy she was tempted to make syrup out of it.

* * *

"Ralph! There you are!" Ralph turned as he heard his name, and saw a familiar handyman in blue approach, followed closely by his wife.

"This is Calhoun, all units may cease searching; target has been located, unharmed – minus redness on one cheek suspiciously shaped like a hand. Over and out."

Ralph self-consciously rubbed his reddened cheek – it still smarted – and tried to change the subject, "You guys searched for me?"

"Of course, we were all worried about you!" Felix responded, and indeed his blue eyes were brimming with concern.

Ralph took a moment to let that sink in – he'd been so caught up in his misery over Vanellope's disappearance that he really hadn't taken the time to consider how others might be reacting to his chaotic behavior. Before he had much of a chance to come up with a response, Felix continued, "And we just wanted you to know that we realize that you're going through an incredibly difficult time right now, but if you ever need anything, my wife and I will do our very best to support you."

The 'light-bulb' expression that exploded on Ralph's face made Felix apprehensive of what he just said. Something told him that Ralph wasn't going to cash in on his offer for the type of 'shoulder-to-lean-on' help he had meant.

* * *

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Felix pressed as the threesome journeyed back to the game of his namesake.

"To be completely honest… no. It's going to be risky – maybe even more so than when we took on the Cy-bugs." Felix's enemy and friend admitted, "So I completely understand if you two don't want to risk it; I'll just go on my own. And don't worry; if anything happens to me, I've got a bunch of no-gamers who are more than qualified to fill in for my position as the wreck-it guy".

Felix locked eyes with his wife before responding, silently asking if it was alright with her to say what he was about to. Knowing his thoughts, she gave him a 'right behind you' look of reassurance.

"Well then I hope you also have a bunch lined up who are qualified to be the fix-it guy, 'cause you're not going anywhere without me." The short handyman smiled up at his best friend and held out a gloved hand, "Partners?"

He was quite pleased when the giant smiled back at him – the first smile he'd made in months – and took his gloved hand for a good hard shake. The smile suddenly faded as their hands shook, and before Felix could even ask why, Ralph answered, "Sorry... it's just, the last partnership I shook on was with… with…"

"Don't worry, Ralph, we'll get her back." Felix interrupted, knowing it was still too hard for his friend to say her name.

"Alright boys, I hate to break up your little love fest, but we've got a party to plan and a lot of preparations to make before its scheduled execution in T minus six days, and we may as well get a jump start on it in the three hours remaining before the arcade opens." The sergeant – always the voice of reason – interrupted.

At that moment an announcement echoed over the loudspeakers, "Characters to your games. The arcade is now opened!"

The threesome looked at each other in surprise, the only times the alert got triggered early was when Litwak was doing arcade maintenance – which meant anything from hardware upgrades and software patches to out-of-order game removal and new game installation. Whatever the case, they had to part ways and get to their respective games pronto… and hope that whatever it was didn't get in the way of their plans they'd discussed earlier that night with Kitty.

* * *

Vanellope awoke with the innate sense that something was direly wrong. First off, she could tell she'd been rebooted. That in and of itself wouldn't be too odd, as she'd experienced it before a handful of times when the arcade lost power or blew a fuse. But this time was different. She felt… dusty… like she'd been sitting on a shelf for a while. Had Mr. Litwak put Sugar Rush in storage? No, that couldn't be right; there was nothing wrong with the game, and even if something was, he would've had someone look at it before putting it into storage, and why the heck would he power up a unit that was in storage? Shaking off the feeling as just a side effect of an unexpected power outage, Vanellope locked into game mode as a quarter alert sounded. Back to work.

The licorice haired racer jumped into her racing car and started up the engine as the familiar countdown sequence began, then was off like a flash when the light turned green. No matter how dusty or rusty she felt a moment ago, the feeling was long gone and she was tearing up the track with renewed enthusiasm. As expected, she took first place and accepted her golden trophy. Now came her favorite part of the game, the part where she got to fist bump the lucky player and catch a glimpse out the window and over at her friend. Maybe this was why she felt dusty, she had nearly forgotten about her falling out with the falling giant from Fix-It Felix Jr. No matter, he was sure to come back begging for forgiveness eventually, and then maybe their relationship would be better than ever – or at least that was her game plan when she broke it off. If things didn't work out that way, well, then she guessed she'd be better off without him anyway.

Putting on the sweetest, most euphoric smile she could muster – just to show Ralph how happy she was without him – Vanellope whirled around to face the screen and fist bump the winner. The first thing that struck her as odd was his apparent age. He appeared to be much older than the kids she was used to seeing at Litwak's, but she'd heard of adults occasionally coming to the arcade to play some of the older games - _"For old time's sake."_ they'd say – and now that Sugar Rush was past twenty, she might be seeing more older players these days. Speak of the devil, there were two more, standing in back of the guy, presumably of the same age group, looking over his shoulder and hastily scribbling something on a notepad. Her eyes began to focus on what she could see over _their_ shoulders, and the sight almost made her memory-leak.

'_I have a feeling I'm not in Litwak's anymore.'_

* * *

_True Word Count for this chapter:_ 2,850  
_True Word Count for story thus far: 14,055_

* * *

**A/N:** I sincerely apologize at how late this chapter is, relative to my earlier postings. In short, there's been a number of things happening in "Real Life" – But I haven't found a good place to download a life just yet, go figure… - the biggest one being changes at work. I'm being moved into a different position, the process of which started about a week and a half ago, and will continue for the next few weeks as I undergo intense training for my new position. As such, I end up working way more hours than usual and being completely brain dead by the time I get home anyway. So I'm apologizing ahead of time, both for delayed updates, and sub-par chapter content. Hopefully things will be back to normal shortly and I can resume writing at a normal pace. Thank you all for bearing with me in the meantime; I'll try and find a way to make it up to you!

**Review Responses** – I wanted to thank those who have submitted reviews for the story thus far – you're what keeps me writing! I wish I had time to respond to individual reviews, stupid work… (don't get me wrong, I enjoy my job, it can just be so time consuming is all… and being salaried means no extra monies for the extra hours… I feel like introducing whoever it was that had that 'brilliant' idea of 'salaried' positions to Calhoun and Kitty and let them have their way with him… Right, on with the story!)


	6. Newport Party

**Phase I, Level 4: Newport Party**

The first thing to infringe upon Ralph's senses was noise - great, thunderous noise with enough decibels to shatter even the thickest eardrums. The low-pitched tones echoed through his body with such ferocity, it penetrated his large chest and threatened to give him heart palpitations. The next sensory overload he experienced was that of smell. No longer able to smell the faint wisps of peppermint from Vanellope's memento around his neck, his nostrils were now flooded with the grating smell of salt and fish – a far cry from the sweet gentle aroma he'd grown accustomed to. Looking down and to his left he caught the gaze of his genteel hammer-wielding friend, who looked up at him with a reassuring smile, though Ralph was pretty sure it was forced – Felix looked like he didn't like the prospects of this mission any better than Ralph did. Nonetheless, the wrecker was grateful for the company on this otherwise lonely quest.

Disembarking from the train, the two cautiously ventured forth into this previously unknown world – and nearly tripped over their own feet. "My lands! This terrain needs some serious fixing!" Felix exclaimed as he tried to regain his footing. Since when was the ground supposed to MOVE under ones feet like this? Ralph seemed to be getting the hang of it quicker, perhaps since he didn't have any form of shoes hindering his feet from being able to grip the surface – although he DID seem to have the slight disadvantage of substantial mass, and would sink into the terrain a lot more than Felix did.

Eventually, they managed to adjust their walking habits in a way that effectively got them from point A to point B, Ralph just wasn't too thrilled to think about what might be waiting for them at point B – the supposed origin of the loud noise and crude smells. Cresting the top of a… hill of some sort - though it was already ceasing to be a hill as a salty breeze caused a shift in the particles along the top of it - the pair looked down upon a lively party of some sort. Felix was soon 8-bit bopping to the catchy dance tune with his signature 'Fix-It Felix' move, while Ralph was trying to assess what sort of threat the large white ball being volleyed among a bunch of party-goers presented – He had learned not to take small spherical objects lightly after the Cy-bug eggs. Before he had finished his assessment, the cautious wrecker noticed his companion was already jump-dancing down to meet the crowd without him.

Attempting to catch up, Ralph went bounding down the hill and was suddenly struck with apprehension when he noted he was gaining far too much momentum and starting to slip on the shifty granules that comprised the ground. Before he could so much as say "I'm gonna wreck it!" Ralph was tumbling head over heels and bowling over a bunch of blond party-goers that were probably already pinheads to begin with.

Unfortunately the ride didn't stop there and soon he was able to assess that the white ball didn't pose much of a threat other than perhaps a few knocked out teeth as it made a collision course with his face, but he had other problems to worry about as he narrowly managed to escape an entanglement with the net the ball had just soared over. His change in direction sent him careening towards a big blue – and from all appearances, wet – thing that kissed the edge of the shifty yellow terrain he was currently in combat with.

"Ralph!" Felix cried as his tumbling friend collided with the foaming substance. Not a moment after, it engulfed his friend when a large tongue of blue swept over him. Bravely deciding to go after Ralph right into the monster's mouth, Felix returned his hammer to his belt and took a deep breath to prepare himself.

"Dude! Your bro's totally amped to go spongin'! Awesome!" one of the natives piped up – RIGHT behind Felix, making him lose his resolve.

"Er- uh, Hi! My Name's Fix-It Felix Jr., from the game, 'Fix-It Felix Jr.', and my… 'bro' there is Wreck-It Ralph. We're actually on a very important mission." he responded, going into speech mode and momentarily forgetting Ralph's plight.

"Far out, dude! The name's Jake, and this here's my territory. Finest beach in all Cali! Welcome to the Laguna hot spot!", the tall blond guy with the funny accent and vocabulary talked back. Felix only wished he knew what the guy was saying, and was only further confused when he slapped on a "..t'cha!" at the end.

* * *

Ralph wasn't sure quite what he was in, but he was keenly aware of the fact that he couldn't breathe, and when he tried to open his eyes, they stung like mad. He forced himself to keep them open and took in his surroundings. He'd been in there for maybe a minute now, but at least things had calmed down. When he had first made contact, the shifty ground got even more aggressive and sank away from his feet as the blue stuff tugged him further and deeper into itself. He couldn't see very much, but there seemed to be some light entering the blue on his left, so he made toward it as best he knew how, but try as he might, he was only getting further and further away from it. Aside from being irked that this blue wet stuff was apparently stronger and bigger than he was, he was becoming increasingly panicked as his oxygen levels were running low and his muscles were beginning to fail him as his weight made him sink further and further.

Suddenly he caught sight from his right peripheral of a dark shape slithering by with alarming speed and dexterity, and a chill went down his spine as though he could feel the motions that shape had just made through the viscous he was surrounded by. Fear gripping him, he made another attempt to get closer to the fading light with all his might, though he was now getting dizzy and his lungs were burning and twitching with a base desire for air. The dark shape made another pass, this time on his left. Great, he was being circled… or surrounded. And by a very ominous being… or two… or more. He didn't like this atmosphere one bit. It was like he had a heightened sense of motion here, and was able to feel the after-effects of others' motions, as well as a little beforehand. The sense of foreboding was overwhelming, especially when he felt the substance start to beat against him from all sides – like something – or some things – was closing in on him. His heart racing a mile a minute, his eyes and lungs burning, and still ever so far from the light, he tried flailing his limbs one last time, but the next thing he knew, everything went dark.

* * *

"WAAHHHHH!" The sound of sobbing, cries, and wails filled the air as panic – sheer, bloody panic – overtook the otherwise sweet lands of Sugar Rush.

"Alright everybody, just calm down!" Vanellope shouted in an attempt to bring everyone to order – though she was just as scared as everyone else. As president, she had a job to do - a job to protect her citizens – and doing so would be pointless if they'd all lost their sanity to begin with.

Truth was, she had no idea how to do either – calm them down or figure out what was going on. According to the system's millis, a lot of time had passed since they'd first been unplugged – and they were often unplugged in between short times of consciousness. Her best bet was that the game's power supply was having issues, and for some reason, rather than having it looked at in-house, Litwak had sent them out to a repair shop. But even if that was the case, she didn't think a hardware issue like that would have taken months to repair. Every time they gained consciousness was just another time to ponder if this time would be the last time they had it – if the next time they would be unplugged permanently. What she really wanted to do was to get a team of semi-sane people together to do reconnaissance on what awaited them at the end of their plug – if there was anywhere they could escape to before the next unplugging. But so far, the pandemonium was preventing her from getting through to even one person. "Ralph…" she choked softly as the madness threatened to overcome her as well. The only reason she'd kept her head on straight this long was because she was trying her hardest to think about what Ralph would do in such a scenario.

Boy, she'd give anything to take back everything she'd said the last time they'd talked – ok, fought. She felt like she now had a clue as to what Ralph was going through with his job. Dealing with unplugged – or about to be unplugged – characters was impossible! Man, she'd been such a jerk. She had it easy being a leader up to this point, and now that it'd actually gotten hard, she was useless as such. Now she only wished she'd have a chance to admit it and ask for forgiveness. Aw poop - pardon the potty mouth, I meant 'aw tootsie roll'. Now she'd done it. All this remorse and missing Ralph was now making her lose her wits and before she could do anything to stop it, she was now bawling with the rest of them. Some leader…

* * *

_True Word Count for Newport Party: 1,607_  
_True Word Count for story thus far: 15,662_

* * *

**Congratulations, Player 1... You've unlocked bonus content...**

To access this content, go to the grooveshark webite and search for "Newport Party Disconnection Remix" there's a song the author uploaded there as the song Felix was dancing to in this chapter.

**A/N:** Sorry this is so short, guys! I also apologize for any errors and/or things that don't make sense… I didn't have a lot of time to work on it with the new job and all. I just completed level one of the training… and next week starts level two… oi. So yeah, I wanted to get SOMETHING posted before things got REALLY crazy! Hopefully soon it'll all calm down and I can write more…

Concerning the bonus content... As the 'remix' implies, yes, I did a little editing on the original to customize it for this story. This is the first time I ever edited a song and I used free crappy software to do it, so I apologize for the bad quality… If it suites your fancy, you should check out the original song, cause it's way better. I only wanted to speed up the tempo a big and make it more 'danceable'.

Once again, I just wanted to thank you all for your continued support! If I had the time, I'd do review responses and thank each one individually that has favorited and/or followed this story since the last time I had a chance to do so... I will catch up on that all eventually! In the meantime, I'm sorry, this general all-encompassing one here is all I have time for... sadness...


	7. Mission Improgrammable

**Phase I, Level 5: ****Mission Improgrammable**

"Kitty!" the dedicated, prompt, and of course fashionable and fabulous postal worker heard her name called as she traversed Game Central Station looking for some good gossip. "Who's wantin' ta know?" she asked as she turned towards the voice. A bright blue hedgehog in red sneakers greeted her gaze and needlessly answered her question, "I'm Sonic, the guy who nearly made you power-strip kill a couple months ago. I've been meaning to apologize to ya, but I just haven't seen you around"

"Well maybe you should slow down, crazy! I'm surprised no one's gotten hurt yet! But don't worry 'bout last time, you jus' ruffled my fur a bit. 'Sides you weren't the one I REALLY needed to pick a bone with that day… darn Ralph."

"What?" Sonic couldn't help exclaiming in astonishment, "Sure, he's a 'villain', but I've never known Ralph to be a bad guy…"

"I never said he was bad, he jus' needs to put that big ol' brain o' his ta work one o' these days! Can' believe it took him a couple weeks 'fore he finally came back ta me to find out what he was too THICK to listen to the day you ran into me!"

Against his better judgment, Sonic let himself get reeled into Kitty's gossip trap and couldn't resist the urge to press for more details. Kitty happily obliged.

"An' so", Kitty wrapped up in summary, "Ralph and Felix arranged a mission ta journey through the world wide web to dat IP address the e-mail for the buyer of Sugar Rush came from."

"Whoah… I've got to get in on that action!" Sonic declared, for though he was the spokesperson for arcade safety, he was also the poster child for fast-paced adventure, and he wasn't going to let Ralph and Felix have all that fun without him. "Thanks, Kitty!" and with that, he was off like a flash to pay a visit to the Fix-It Felix game outlet.

* * *

"I still don't know, Dr., I just don't think this is the best thing for Ralph to do." an anxious Calhoun admitted.

"But your husband is with him, I'm sure he'll be fine with him by his side. Or do you doubt your husband?", Doctor McCalloc replied, fully in psychiatrist mode. As the resident doctor for the Fix-It Felix Jr. game, he'd taken on Ralph's case after the Bad Anon guys had finally convinced Ralph that it was a good idea to seek further, more regular help. If Ralph's wasn't such an interesting case, McCalloc may not have taken it on, for it was a rather demanding job, having to manage all the memory space for the game. It may not sound like a taxing job just by its title, but he was responsible for creating and resetting things in the game as needed, which also included fixing up KO'd characters so they'd re-spawn. Doing so in a matter of nanoseconds wasn't anything to shake a stick at, even for fancy-schmancy new games. Bet you didn't know that when a character flashed on the screen, it was because they were teleported to the operating room and back. He'd been lucky enough to avoid the occupation thus far, but game doctors occasionally had the unfortunate job of undertaker whenever a character from another game bit the bytes. The local code just wasn't compatible to save the character, and any glitch or corrupt/incomplete piece of code is not able to leave the game to return to their own game to get fixed. But it is time to digress, for despite all those morbidly fascinating details about his day job, the nighttime flexibility allowed him to work with Ralph for the past few days to prepare him for his mission.

"Of course I have faith in him, but that doesn't mean that Ralph will be prepared for the emotional upheaval no matter how good his backup is."

"So Ralph is the one you doubt…?"

Ugh, though she was a prime candidate, considering her most tragic of backstories, Calhoun just didn't particularly like getting psychoanalyzed.

She was saved from having to answer when a blue blur burst into the room and braked right in front of her.

"Lieutenant! Where's Ralph and Felix!? I want in on the action, and you know I'll be a great addition to the team!"

"Whoah there, Sonic, slow down… for starters, I'm a sergeant, not a lieutenant…"

* * *

AIR! Sweet, glorious, dry, air! Ralph was awakened from his reverie by a slap of wind, but was subsequently reminded of his precarious reality when he was also slapped by a wave of salty water and sent under again. A third slap rendered his interpretation of his current situation incomprehensible. That last one sent him back into the air, and he had to wonder if the people he had seen before slapping a white ball around where now making a game of him in a similar fashion. Too afraid to open his eyes, Ralph just let his skin do the sensing and figured the 'hand' that kept spiking him was too slimy to belong to any of those on the beach he had encountered earlier.

"My lands! Ralph!" Felix yelped, finally breaking from his in depth conversation with the one called 'Jake' as a ball of orange poking up from the big blue caught his eye.

"Oh dude, not cool… the water sprite's got 'im in her ugly clutches!" Jake informed which only worried Felix even more.

"We've gotta do something!" Felix cried, pulling out his hammer and trying his best to run across the surface Jake had told him was actually 'sand'.

"Whoah, chillax, dude. I got this." Jake stated as though there wasn't any sort of crisis.

Dumbfounded, Felix stayed put as Jake grabbed a long oblong board thing and rushed into the 'ocean' thing he described only moments ago. A chorus of "Yeah!", "Gnarly!", "Rip it!" and "Jake" chants erupted from all the other 'beach'-goers as he did so, and Felix had a hard time getting one of them to pay attention long enough to ask what was going on. When he finally succeeded, the girl replied, "He's totally like, a qualified lifeguard and all that, and it's his job to save us all from the sea monster with his wicked surfing skills!"

Felix wasn't sure if he should be relieved by the bikini-clad party-goer's reassurance of Jake's skills, or just more worried at the notion of a 'sea monster'. He watched anxiously as Jake duck-dived under the oncoming waves to get out far enough where Ralph was disappearing and reappearing among the waves. Soon Jake was using his boardy-thing to maneuver over and under rolling water, all the while garnering points that appeared over his head and incremented a high score box in the sky. Finally, he was close enough to Ralph to reach out a hand to help his friend up onto the board. Unfortunately a wave knocked them both off, causing a few numbers from the high score to fall down from the sky into the hungry waves below.

* * *

Seeing Vanellope crying by herself, Jubileena ventured over and hugged her friend, though they were both sobbing sugar crystals by this point, having spent their moisture on all their prior tears. After a while, the citizens began to calm down; this was the longest they'd been plugged in for quite a while. The cherry-topped racer sniffed back the last of her tears and asked hopefully, "Do you think maybe… we're plugged in permanently now?"

"I-I don't know" the princess-turned-president replied, forgoing royal decorum as usual and unashamedly wiping the snot from her nose with her taffy sleeve. "Even if we are, I have no idea what we should do!"

"Hmm… I don't think any of us do", Jubileena reasoned, "but maybe we should at least find out what the state of the system is from the Muffin Man".

"The Muffin Man?" Vanellope questioned, absolutely baffled as to what he had to do with all of this.

"Yes, the Muffin Man. You met him once before… before we were… un… un-plugged!" the red-faced girl responded, bursting into tears once more as she choked out the tail end of her statement.

Hugging her good friend to calm her tears before talking, Vanellope pressed, "yes, I know who he is, but why should he know anything about the system?"

Sniffing and wiping her tears, Jubileena answered, "Don't you know? Every game's doctor is able to, and responsible for monitoring the system and handling all the data for it. That's why they're doctors; they know your code - and everyone else's - inside-out. We all forgot about him when King Cand-I mean, Turbo- locked away our memories, but the Muffin Man was released from the 'Fungeon' when you reset the game. Even if you didn't know about him personally, I thought you knew that all games had a similar doctor and what each of their jobs were…"

Feeling suddenly a bit violated at the newfound knowledge, Vanellope admitted her ignorance to the fact and consented that the idea was a good one. "Will you go with me?" she asked, and soon they were off to Cherry Lane once again.

They never made it that far. The caramel-drizzled doctor rushed by them in a blur, and the two had to grab a candy kart on their pursuit to catch up to him. When they overtook him, they had just cut him off at the threshold to the rainbow bridge.

"Muffin Man, we have some questions for you!" Vanellope declared in her most regal of tones.

"Forgive me, Princess, now isn't the best time." he stated in exasperation, clearly vexed with the sudden interruption.

"Then allow us to give ya a hand and THEN answer our questions, dummy-head!" Vanellope snapped back.

Apparently in too much of a hurry to argue, the doctor replied "Fine! But stay behind me!" in a huff, then proceeded to lead them up the rainbow bridge and out of Sugar Rush.

"Sorry to drag you with me on a sudden trip to the outside." Vanellope whispered to Jubileena, who looked beside herself with worry.

"Naw, it's ok; what are friends for?" She replied with a strained smile.

Vanellope made a mental note to dig into the royal reserves to reward her friend handsomely for her bravery… if they came out of this alive and stayed plugged in long enough to do so, that is…

* * *

"Ralph! Thank goodness you're alright!" The handyman cried with relief, embracing his friend as best he could with his tiny little arms. His weighty friend was also quite wet, he noted with only a hint of disgust. All that truly mattered was that he was alive! Felix couldn't imagine how distraught he'd be if he lost his best friend to an out-of-game death. Apparently Ralph was also just as shaken, for he returned the hug and didn't speak for a while as his teeth chattered with the cold.

"I don't know how I can ever thank or repay you for saving him, sir." Felix addressed Jake as he approached post-hanging up his board.

With a head toss to shake the water out of his hair – which resulted in a chorus of squeals from fangirls – the lifeguard shot back, "Don't sweat it, dude, it's my job. So just hang loose, bro."

Still struggling with the language barrier, Felix just smiled and nodded as Ralph regained himself.

Ralph wiped his eyes as best as he could, though the rest of him was just as soaked with salty water. He tried to speak a couple times, but his lungs protested as water clung to them, restraining his ability to talk, and even breathing was still difficult.

Seeing his troubled recovery, Jake piped up, "Looks like you're not from this game since you didn't reset after the rescue. You may wanna get back to your own game and get yourself fixed up. Then come back for some surfing lessons; I hold them every Friday!"

"Ah yes, good idea." Felix conceded in regards to the former, though he was sure Ralph wouldn't be too happy about aborting the mission like this; not one bit. But when all Ralph could do was sputter in protest, even he had to admit that going forward wasn't an option right now.

"This way, dudes!" Jake called as he headed towards the exit to show them out.

* * *

"Sonic! Wait up!" Calhoun called from atop her glider, but her calls fell upon deaf ears that were speeding down the tunnel of Fix-It Felix Jr. towards Game Central Station.

But apparently he HAD heard, for she heard a warbled reply echo back up the tunnel saying, "No can do! I'm gonna catch up to them, as fast as I can!"

* * *

_True Word Count for Mission Improgrammable: 2,130_  
_True Word Count for story thus far: 17,776_

* * *

**A/N:** Alright, I'm way behind on reviews, so here's a rather long review response section…

_Chapter 2: Vanellope's Memento ~ Responses_

_CraftyKeronian_ – Haha yes, I cried while writing the chapter… twice. I'm so cruel to them…

_Bonus Chapter: The Muffin Man ~ Responses_

_WhatNames_ – So glad you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun writing it and trying to use as many references as I could! And I'm also really happy you liked Candlehead. I love Candlehead, and am often disappointed at how she's portrayed (or not even portrayed at all – sadness)

_applebut999 _– bwahahah! I mean, sorry for the torment… but really, the first question is torment in and of itself…

_Awesome Stories May Occur / Guest_ – Thanks for all the reviews! Please check your PMs for my response, as they contained spoilers, and I didn't want to post them here. So happy you like the story so far!

_Chapter 3: Replaced ~ Responses_

_Awesome Stories May Occur / Guest_ – No, not up for auction. If I had responded to you sooner, you wouldn't have had to wait until this chapter where I mentioned that Sugar Rush was sold to a private buyer (not that I stated that explicitly, but it was somewhat implied by Kitty's comment that it was a single e-mail / IP address / buyer… and the transaction had already taken place before Sugar Rush 'woke up' to those people playing it.

_Annie C_ – Thanks! Not really a promotion, just moving around within the same department, working on a different team for a different product… yes, that's all rather vague, but I'm not entirely sure how to explain it. How about I just state that I work as a software developer and now I'm working on a different program than I was before? I don't fully get all the company politics myself anyway… Glad you like the story! And yes, I just had to put Zombie in… he's so endearing… in a weird, sort of morbid… way… yeah…

_Chapter 4: Newport Party ~ Responses_

_CraftyKeronian_ – Thanks! I'm still doing a lot of the same stuff, just have to learn an entirely different program, as I noted in Annie C's response above. So it feels like my brain might implode from all the information overload ('cause now I need to learn all the new stuff AND retain all the old stuff to train my replacement… which they haven't hired yet, haha). And yes, I feel sorry for all the characters… I torture them so… especially Ralph, and Vanellope… and the torture they have yet to see, oh dear… I apologize in advance, guys! As for how they got on a beach, that was partly answered in this chapter, and will be fully explained in the next!

_Dixie Darlin_ – Wow! I'm impressed, and honored! To read that all in one sitting… I just might cry, I'm so touched… but I may just offer you an aspirin instead, to spend so long in front of a computer screen… or a medal, if you read it really fast… I stink at speed reading…

_Becky Blue Eyes_ – OMG! The author of LI16F read my story! I think I just lost a life… Mind. Blown. I'm still in the process of reading yours, but alas, haven't gotten too far just yet… this new job position thing is eating up all my reading time, boo. Which is a total bummer since I finally got Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility for Christmas, and the job transition started as soon as I got back from Christmas break, so I haven't had the chance to read that either yet… D: Ok, done my total sidetrack… point is I plan to read both as soon as work slows down. Thanks for reading my story; I'm so glad you like it! It's been an absolute BLAST writing it, and I'd totally just spend all my time writing it if there wasn't that pesky thing called 'real life'…


	8. Mission Improgrammable II

**Phase I, Level 6: Mission Improgrammable II**

Many innocent bystanders milling about Grand Central Station were subject to a speeding blue blur. That is, until he pulled up short. He had just blown past the Whack-A-Mole platform when something caught his eye which prompted him to slam on his 'brakes' and back up.

"Ralph! Felix! What are you guys doing here!? Is the mission over already!?" the speedy hedgehog exclaimed, surprised and indignant.

The duo didn't have a chance to respond before a particularly dynamite gal pulled up on her glider, having finally caught up to Sonic.

"Whoah! Far out! You can surf on AIR!?" Jake cried out, drawing all attention to himself, leaving just about everyone present in a state of confusion.

"Who's this? You took him on your mission and you didn't even invite ME!?" Sonic accused, getting REALLY upset now.

"Sonic, I've been trying to explain, but you took off before I could." Calhoun explained, rather disgruntled herself from having to chase him down.

"You mean you didn't rush out here to welcome me back, honey?" Felix asked, visibly wilting from his past state of excitement of seeing his wife so promptly.

"Dude, can I ride your surfboard!?"

"No!" Calhoun answered her husband and the unknown blond simultaneously. "Sorry, honey, circumstances would've been different if this insubordinate hodge-podge didn't get out of hand."

"Hey! I'm a HEDGEHOG. Hedge. Hog."

"Shut it and listen for once when you ask questions! Felix and Ralph were – "

"Can I PLEASE ride your awesome air-board, Miss Dudette?"

"NO!"

"Who is that, and why is he with Felix and Ralph on their mission!?"

"Er, can we – " Ralph started, but was interrupted by a cough and a sputter, " – go back to the game first?"

It was then that Calhoun noticed that Ralph was obviously a little worse for wear. "Ralph! What happened to you!?"

"Oh don't you worry, Miss Dudette, he just got riptide'd out and had a gnarly encounter with the sea sprite, but he'll be fine, just got himself salty lungs for awhile – t'cha." Jake explained, as if that was a completely suitable explanation for gremmies.

"And who're you?" Sonic addressed the blond foreigner directly.

"Oh hey, lil dude, 'name's Jake, from the 'Laguna Beach Lifeguard' game." he explained, pointing a thumb back over his shoulder at the sign that aptly read 'Laguna Beach Lifeguard' overhanging the platform.

"Hey, I'm NOT little! And you're from the NEW game!?" Sonic cried angrily. How dare they take the newbie with them on their mission and not himself!

"T'cha. NOW can I ride your ride, dudette?"

"For the last time, NO!" Calhoun yelled, "Now I suggest we all head over to Fix-It Felix Jr., calm down, and get all these misunderstandings cleared up.

The rest of the group consenting, they made their way to follow the sergeant's suggestion.

"So… can I ride your board over there?"

"NO!"

* * *

"Where are you goin', Doctor? The train's over this way!" Vanellope pointed out as the doctor made his way over to a dead end wall.

Making no response, the doctor only continued walking until he made contact with the wall – and disappeared through it.

"Whoah! Didja see that!?" Jubileena asked in astonishment.

"Yeah! Let's go through too!"

"Do you think we can?"

"Don't worry 'bout it; I'll go first."

"But what if I can't follow you and end up here stuck by myself?"

"Here, I'll hold your hand. Now we can't be separated."

A little more reassured, Jubileena followed her friend through the wall and they emerged hand in hand.

"Whoah…" was all they could say on the other side, for they were in a huge room with all sorts of 'outlets'. From this side of the wall, they could see the power cord that housed the train right behind them, and in front of them, many other cords and wires. Some were just as large as the train tunnel, and many others were far smaller, like a little mouse sized train tunnel.

"Where do all these go?" Jubileena inquired, reaching a hand out to towards an entrance for one of the mouse sized tunnels with the intent to bend down for a closer look.

"Don't touch that!" The doctor shouted, causing Jubileena to withdraw her hand as though she'd been shocked with electricity. Rushing back to the girls' side, he grabbed Jubileena's free hand – the one that reached out to touch the tunnel – and bent over it, examining meticulously. "Does it hurt anywhere?" He asked anxiously.

"N-No…" The startled racer replied. Vanellope gripped the hand that was in hers for support.

"Thank goodness." the doctor mumbled, releasing the hand and resuming full posture.

"What's so dangerous about it?" Vanellope asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.

The Doctor stood still for a while, his muffin headgear bobbing a bit, as though the thoughts flying around his head were too intense even for the large muffin to contain. Sighing, he returned his attention to the bewildered girls staring wide eyed in anticipation. "First, I must beg for your forgiveness. I was in so much of a hurry, I didn't stop long enough to ponder the danger this would pose to you ladies. I do sincerely offer my apologies." At this, he bowed his head a little in their direction. "It's ok" Jubileena replied, but Vanellope wasn't about to get distracted. "You're gonna try an' send us back, aren'tcha?"

"It's the best for your safety, young misses."

"Look here, crumb-face. I'm the PRESIDENT of this here game, and I ain't going back. It is my duty – and it's a BIG duty – to oversee all concerns for my game." The Doctor noted that Vanellope could be quite a tough cookie when she wanted to be. No more miss sweet racer, for sure.

"And I'm not going back without Vanellope!" Jubileena piped in, "because she's my best friend…"

That last addendum made Vanellope freeze. 'Best friend'? She'd never had one of those before… and it felt… incredibly special.

The warm fuzzy Kodak moment was broken when the Muffin Man acquiesced, defeated. "Ahhh fine. But you girls are going to have to obey my every command, got it? And stay close behind me!"

"Got it!" The girls chorused.

"Very well. First rule is no. touching. Anything!"

"What about the floor?" Vanellope challenged with a giggle. She was incredibly happy right now, despite the dangerous situation and somber doctor.

"Yeah, and the air?" Jubileena added, sticking her tongue out.

Rather than getting upset, the doctor just stepped up to them, took both their free hands in his, and looked them in the eye. With the most serious of tones, he explained, "Look, it's my responsibility to keep you ladies safe; and we're in the most unstable part of the cabinet right now. One wrong move and your code could be deleted – forever. When we walked through that wall, we left the virtual graphics realm you've always been used to. It was like a safe little bubble in there, but in here, we're in the motherboard itself, and all those little ports are different buses transporting raw data to where it needs to go. The only reason I'm here is to investigate some serious code anomalies I've picked up on. Being a part of the computer itself, I have no code, and thus I need not worry about deletion like you do. This body that's interacting with you now is an avatar I made from spare code so that I could have eyes and ears in other parts of the system I cannot physically access myself. It's expendable. However you two… your code is all you have. If it gets deleted; you'll be gone forever. Now please… listen to me and let me protect you."

That was twice in two minutes Vanellope had been touched with a warm fuzzy feeling; but this time, there was no longer any desire to giggle about it. She had no idea the doctor cared so much – he must take his job far more seriously than she ever took hers. Upon closer inspection, she could see that the Muffin Man's cheeks were starting to streak and his eyes looked rather wet. He'd hardly ever interacted with them – at least not in his avatar form – how could it be that he was so attached?

The two solemnly nodded their agreement, then silently followed as he led them further into the darkness.

* * *

"So you aren't leaving to go find Sugar Rush until next weekend when Litwak's out of town for a few days?" Sonic clarified, spinning his chair at the conference room table – he never could stand sitting still.

"That's right." Felix responded, at the head of the table, since it was his conference room – on the top floor of the penthouse.

"And you were at Blondie's because you wanted to welcome him to the arcade?" the blue hedgehog again clarified, not sure he totally bought into it.

"Yes, sir."

"NOW can I ride the air-board!?"

"How many times do I have to say 'no'!?" An exasperated Calhoun exclaimed, standing up from her seat and looking like she was going to punch Jake in the face.

"Actually, ma'am, I think now might be a good time for Jake to leave the room – er, take your 'board' out for a spin." Felix nudged, communicating with his eyes that it'd be better for them all if Jake just wasn't present for continued discussion – if only for their sanity, due to his incessant pleas.

"Ugh… fine…" Tamora mumbled, barely audible, reluctantly handing over her glider.

"Really!? RIGHTEOUS!" the blond surf enthusiast yelled, and was out the door with the glider faster than Sonic could accomplish.

"Finally…" Ralph groaned. He never liked the thought of befriending the game in the first place; and now that he knew what the locals were like, he REALLY wanted nothing to do with them.

"I can tell you don't believe us, Sonic." Felix pointed out, "but I know Ralph wouldn't want us discussing the real reason with Jake around – even if his remarkably low I.Q. would've enabled it to go right over his head anyway" Looking over at his friend, Felix asked, "Do you want to take over from here, Ralph?"

Not really. But he didn't think he'd get away with refusing anyway. So he started, "It's all part of my 'therapy'. They think I'll be able to come to grips with 'Sugar Rush's disappearance and be more detached and focused on the mission if I can first come to grips with the fact that 'Sugar Rush' has been replaced by 'Laguna Beach Lifeguard'. Believe us now?"

"Yeah, I do. And now I hope you'll listen to my proposal – "

"RIGHTEOUS! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the euphoric surfer cried as he crashed through the conference room window.

"That's it, I've had it!" Calhoun roared, and a second later, blond decked blond off the deck of the glider.

Now pinned to the floor, Jake ejaculated, "WHOAH! That ride was so worth it… hit me, baby, one more time! YEAH!" Calhoun was happy to oblige.

"Listen up, guys; the arcade opens up in a few minutes so before this gets too crazy, just hear me out! I wanna go with you on your mission over the internet to find 'Sugar Rush'." Sonic interrupted.

"Oh hey, can I come too? Sounds gnarly!"

"Fat chance, hippie!" the sergeant replied, and followed up with another slug for good measure.

* * *

After Felix finished fixing the window and Ralph arranged all the heavy conference room furniture back to their original position, and after Calhoun had kicked out the surfer and put away her glider under lock and key, Felix called for a debriefing.

"Up 'til now, we've been planning this as a 3-man job; just the three of us. But now we've got two more who want to join. I think we should at least seriously consider the benefits of their requests."

"Well nothing good can come of that Josh 'dude' coming." Calhoun huffed.

"The gentleman's name is 'Jake', honey."

"He's no 'gentleman', and he wouldn't last five minutes as a soldier, neither."

"All disqualifications aside, I'm against Jake." Ralph piped in.

"And why's that?" Felix prompted.

"I dunno… just seems… wrong… to bring along the guy who replaced… replaced… her."

"Exactly why I think it would be a good idea for him to come."

"WHAT!?" Calhoun and Ralph chorused in protest.

"Just hear me out. The 'therapy' mission today obviously failed. And Ralph's no closer to 'resolution', or even being able to simply say the name of 'Sugar Rush's heroine. Perhaps prolonged exposure to the reality – to Jake – would be good for him."

"I ain't buyin' it without an actual doctor's opinion – and maybe Josh-"

"Jake."

"-whatever. Should go see a doctor himself!"

"Fair enough. We'll ask Dr. McAlloc. But even if he doesn't agree, I still say if he wants to come, we should let him."

"What!? Why!?" Ralph spoke up, his frown growing more severe.

"Because he saved your life."

"His game's villain attacked me!"

"Doesn't discredit his skills. Such bravery and rescue training could be indispensable on our mission."

"Ugh, can't believe you're even considering him! You saw how he mishandled my glider!" Calhoun interjected.

"With all due respect, ma'am, you didn't see him in action at the beach like I did. And despite his glider fiasco, he skillfully avoided hurting anyone. I think he just got a little too over-excited. If we leave the glider behind, that problem will be solved."

"I still don't like it."

"Neither do I." Ralph agreed, making sure the quarreling lovebirds still knew he was present. It was –his- mission after all, and he was starting to feel sidelined. "What about Sonic?" he asked, hoping a change in subject would get the focus back where it should be.

"His speed could definitely be useful, and he's been a loyal friend to all in the arcade he knows. I'm ok with it." Felix agreed.

"Far better HIM than blondie." Calhoun consented.

"Have you forgotten that you're also a blond, honey?"

Ralph gave up. They were too engrossed in their own conversation and would no doubt be making a third wheel presence feel quite awkward when things started to get mushy. Excusing himself so they could be alone, the lonely giant left the penthouse and stepped off screen, preparing himself for the arcade opening in a few minutes. Savoring the last couple minutes of the night, Ralph pulled out the candy flower hanging around his neck and traced the stem with his finger. "Don't worry, princess. No matter what hurdles get in the way, I'm still going to find you, and then I'll show you how sorry I am – for everything…"

* * *

Whistling a self-satisfied tune, the blond and bruised lifeguard meandered back onto the beaches of his game and was welcomed by all his fellow surfers and surfettes, who begged for details on his adventure on the outside and what took him so long.

"Well you see, ladies..." he began, putting each of his arms around the closest girls, "I've been invited on a most DANGEROUS mission; they just can't accomplish it without my rad skillz". As the girls giggled and pressed for more details, he and the crowd headed into the beach mansion – their game's starting point, since the night was nearly over.

They were all so enraptured by his narrative, none of them noticed a dark shadow slink by as it eavesdropped on Jake's every word.

* * *

"It's as I feared…" The Muffin Man whispered as he examined a particularly large box. A 'mouse-sized' cord was coming out of it and was pulsing with blue light in regular intervals.

"What is?" Vanellope asked hesitantly.

"Our code's being copied." He stated with finality, as though the girls understood the implications of 'copied', or even got the concept of it in the first place.

"So… what's that mean?" Jubileena pressed.

"It means a backup is being created." The doctor was now pacing back and forth in apprehension, often wiping his face with his hand as he pondered.

"Is that… bad?"

"I'm still not entirely sure. A back up could mean something's wrong with the system and so they want a restore point should the system crash, but I haven't monitored any abnormalities that would indicate we're unstable. It could also mean that a copy is being made to put into a new cabinet so this one can be disposed of, and while I don't have a good view of the outside of the console, I don't think we sustained any sort of damage to the unit that would warrant it needing replacement. No… there's a more plausible deduction; I just need to think of it."

At that moment, they started to hear noises like the computer was getting into gear for something. More lights started pulsing down cords and the sound of giant fans began to whir as they prepared to keep the system cooled.

"What's… going on?" Jubileena asked, grabbing hold of Vanellope's arm in fear.

"We'd better get back." The Muffin Man stated, "The system's on a timer for usual arcade operation, and it thinks it's opening time. The longer we stay, the more dangerous it'll get as it sets up the system for play. Follow me!"

Needing no further prodding, the girls followed him closely, and soon they were nearly back to where they had first entered, but suddenly the doctor stopped, causing them to bump into his back. Before they could process why he'd stopped, he shouted, "NO! DON'T, CANDLE-"

* * *

_True Word Count for Chapter 6_: 2,920  
_True Word Count for story thus far_: 20,712

* * *

**A/N**: Thank you all for your continued support with favorites / follows, and reviews! I'm so excited about the positive response and that you're all enjoying it as I'm enjoying writing it!

**Review Responses:**

_Becky Blue Eyes_ – Funny that you said 'case'… but I can't tell you why yet. xD I had a lot of fun building on Vanellope's and Jubileena's chemistry in this chapter! I think they're too cute! (Is that prideful of me? Whoops…)

_Dixie Darlin_ – Haha, I guess it is bizarre and hilarious in a way… but so much for trying to get the readers to fear with Ralph as he thought he was more or less drowning… xD This is what I get for mixing danger and adventure with comedy… I hope the idea of the doctors seems a little more plausible after this chapter; I really struggled making the concept of the game doctors 'believable', but I really wanted a closer link between the characters and the computer / code behind them, and I somehow ended up with this idea of doctors and code repair and such…

_Christiansoldier5_ – Buckle up! As this chapter pointed out, there's more Sonic to come!

_Ryanurch_ – I PM'd you asking for more specifics on what was hard to read, but since you didn't respond, I'll put a review response here as well…

**_All_** – I've been told that this story is at times hard to read. Is this a common problem for the rest of you as well? Please let me know if so and which parts you found difficult. I'll try to avoid such instances in the future so ya'll can enjoy the story without difficulty! That being said, there are times when I'm purposely trying to make it 'hard to read', as I wish to play with your minds; bwahahahaha! But only a little bit…


	9. Bonus: Panic Sheer, Bloody Panic

**A/N**: Just a quick note before I get into the story today... I apologize, this chapter isn't up to my standards... but since Wreck-It Ralph released on DVD today, I REALLY wanted to post a chapter! As such, I'm making this a bonus chapter... it's not -crucial- to understanding the next chapter, it's just more of an interlude to keep things connected as I move into the next chapter... I will say that there's a bit of foreshadowing /clues in this chapter, but if you're not the type who likes to try and connect the dots before things are explained, then feel free to skip it entirely; you won't be missing much. If you're the type of person who likes random character interactions, go ahead and read; I had a lil fun with Jake and Kitty and how the main cast responds to them.

**Warning:** If you ARE going to skip this chapter, be sure to just read the last section, as it isn't part of the material that can be scrapped.

* * *

**BONUS: Panic. Sheer, Bloody Panic**

"Tamora, we're gonna be late!" Felix hollered through the door, grating on Ralph's ears as he approached.

"Just a minute! A girl needs her things!", came the muffled reply.

"Oh, good morning, Ralph!" Felix greeted as he noticed the wreck-it man's approach, "All ready to go?"

"Uh sure, I guess." To be completely honest with himself, Ralph wasn't sure what Felix meant by 'ready'. However judging by the suitcase the handyman had in hand, Ralph was leaning more towards the material meaning of readiness. If that was the case, Ralph was as ready as he was any day. Didn't have too many belongings besides the clothes on his back, and that was all he needed. He still had the peppermint poppy around his neck too, but he hadn't told Felix about that, so it didn't really contribute or take away from material readiness, though it sure did help emotional readiness. Today was finally the day their mission to find Vanellope would commence.

The door to the Fix-It's flat opened and out came a heavy-laden Calhoun, though she remedied that when she handed a particularly large suitcase to Ralph – "Here, Ralph, it looks like you have a few extra hands." - subsequently making him feel a bit under-prepared materially after all.

"Sweetheart, what are all these bags for?" Felix asked as he too, was handed a bag to carry.

"Never hurts to be prepared!" she declared, and shouldering a particularly large combat backpack ordered, "Now let's move out, people!"

* * *

"Yo, dudes! – and totally rad dudette of the air board – Ready to par-tay!?" Jake called while the trio approached the photobooth – the designated meeting spot for the mission.

Great… Jake's coming after all – sarcasm, of course. No sign of Sonic or Kitty yet, and Ralph couldn't say he was all that excited to see them, even if they were helping him find Sugar Rush. It didn't help any that Jake was already treating this like a vacation. He'd just donned some shades and made some sort of weird hair flip motion, which caused a few female characters milling around Grand Central Station to swoon.

"Yo, Ralph!" Jake interrupted the man's thoughts, "I wanted to do my intro again 'cause the last time we met you were all white-washed and sick, dude. Takin' on the water sprite, totally gnarly, man… respect."

Not sure how to respond to Jake's mini-speech, but understanding the resulting hand gesture, Ralph fist-bumped back and mumbled a "sure… 'respect'…" Perhaps he'd misjudged Jake, in light of this act of friendship. But even so, Ralph couldn't shake the bitterness. It was basically Jake's fault that Sugar Rush had vanished – or at least, that's what Ralph kept telling himself so that he wouldn't feel so guilty taking ALL the blame. He'd rather just blame himself for losing Vanellope's friendship, but for losing the entire game, he felt better reasoning that Litwak had made a rather unwise decision to replace it with 'Laguna Beach Lifeguard'. Seeing Kitty's emergence from the photo booth tunnel, Ralph decided to have a little fun with the new guy and see what he was made of.

"Sooo, Jake… you haven't met Kitty yet, have you?"

* * *

"Vanellope! Jubileena! Where've you been!?" was the first thing the duo heard, but the barrage of questions that followed were so jumbled together they couldn't make sense of it.

"Whoah, guys, slow down…" Vanellope pleaded. Jubileena looked too frightened and disoriented to speak at all. Vanellope wasn't much better off; and it took quite a bit of effort to process her surroundings before she was able to ascertain that she was now back in the train tunnel just outside Sugar Rush, right outside the wall she'd entered earlier, hand-in-hand with her new best friend.

The other eight racers plus Sour Bill were gathered, as well as a few assorted candies; and all were in pretty much the same state of pandemonium she'd left them in earlier. It just seemed the object of their panic had changed. She caught bits and fragments of their shouts, and words such as "Candelhead", "follow", and "disappear" made the gist of it clear to her. Her best guess was that Candlehead and seen Jubileena, Muffin Man, and herself leave the game, followed them, and somehow the other racers caught wind of the disappearances and that they had occurred in the train tunnel – as evidenced by their collective presence there now. What she still wasn't sure of was how she and Juby had ended up back here too.

The last thing she recalled was following the Muffin Man, bumping into him, and him shouting something about – or to – Candlehead. Oh goodness, what had happened to Candlehead!? To Muffin Man!? It was at this point that despite her mind trying to make sense of it all and get herself oriented, she too started to give way to panic. Where were her missing friends, how did she and Juby get back here without her remembering anything, and how was she going to restore order to her game – to her friends – to Juby, who was now crying – when she felt like just breaking down herself? She needed to get away to think things out for a while so she didn't have a complete nervous breakdown. She needed to get Jubileena away from it too, but the crowd was pressing in too close. Wait, why was that a problem? She could freakin' teleport with her glitch! Grabbing Jubileena's hand so she could teleport her as well, Vanellope closed her eyes and focused her energy on her glitch and…

"Vanellope! Why did you all come to the train tunnel?" "Van, what happened to Candle!?" "President, are we being unplugged!?" The questions continued to barrage her like a paparazzi of bad press, and she began to realize that she was still in the train tunnel. The insanity took over her mind when she realized she could no longer glitch. "OH MY GOBSTOPPERS, WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ME!?" she shrieked, falling to the ground in shock.

* * *

"Miss Candlehead, can you hear me? Candle…" the doctor called as he noticed her eyes begin to flutter. She still wasn't acknowledging him; despite his efforts. "Come on, Candle, hang in there…" he whispered as his hands worked on her wounds. They were now a million clock-cylce-omoters away from the train entrance – clear on the other side of the Motherboard. Despite his efforts to outrun the bus line, the portal Candlehead had gotten herself sucked into had managed to transport her this far – and inflict this much damage. He had been delighted when he'd managed to splice into and intercept the line before she'd made it as far as the processor – Lord knows it would've been too late if she went in there – but with this much code leakage, the outlook was still grim at best.

Another worry nagged at the back of his mind – the effect of splicing into the transit line would have on Sugar Rush – but no matter how much damage that caused, they should still all be able to walk away with most of their code intact; it was Candle that most required medical attention. Oh, what he wouldn't give for some code patches right now, and it was impossible to tell her code leak apart from the code leaking from the bus above, and he was running out of time. "Miss Candle, can you hear me? Come on, Candle, don't leave me…"

* * *

"Say WHAT!?" Kitty exclaimed. Perfect, Ralph thought, she's furious with Jake. All he'd suggested was that Jake say something along the lines of 'shut up' to her. This trip may be fun after all. Plus if anyone had any sort of power to get a game kicked out of the arcade, it was Kitty. He felt a twinge of guilt at the back of his neck – his thoughts as of late were sounding rather evil to him in hindsight. Perhaps it was the villain in him rearing its ugly head, maybe it was just an ill-chosen outlet for his grief over the loss of Sugar Rush, maybe he was just born with it, or maybe it was Maybelline. Wait, what? Ah, it was a spam message for Maybelline products that caught his eye as it poked out of Kitty's messenger bag. Back to the point, he thought he was beginning to regret his little prank and evil thoughts, and thinking he should really take Felix's advice to heart to give this Jake guy a chance, when it all backfired.

"I said 'shut up, dude!'. Was so surprised to see you in uniform! I just think it's totally rad that you're a girl in the service! The world needs more ladies in that line, and looking smokin' hott while doing it, t'cha!" – apparently no one had told the man that not everyone in a suit served in the military.

Kitty's indignant exterior melted away to one of amusement, "Boy, why haven't I met 'choo yet?!"

"Name's Jake, from the Laguna Beach Lifeguard game – just arrived a week ago. I only wish I had known 'bout an angel like yourself the hour I arrived". What the heck was this? Jake could use entire sentences without the words 'dude', 'rad,' or 'gnarly'? It was like he was a whole different person when he was putting the moves on some single lady.

"Aw, you're too cute! Hey Ralph, you should learn a thing o' two from this here fella sometime! You might even git yourself a girlfriend!" Kitty called, only rubbing it in all the more. Ok, the guilt was completely gone now, that lifeguard punk was going down. He wasn't sure what disgusted him more, the fact that Jake was flirting with a woman twice his age, or that Kitty had suggested that Ralph get a girlfriend – of all things! Like he had time for that when he ran the H.E.R.O. program, and it was because of that they were all here in the first place – to fix his blunder and bring Sugar Rush back. Once he had more time, he'd be spending it with Vanellope, who mattered far more to him than some random girl. Although, if he played his cards right… and had Vanellope pose as his daughter, he could perhaps pull off the 'single father' act to 'get chicks' as Jake called it. Oh boy, the longer he spent in Jake's presence, the more he felt his I.Q. drop.

"Sonic in the house!" Sonic referred to himself in the third person as he sped in to join the fray, "Let's get the show on the road!"

"You said it, dude! Up top!" Jake replied, high-fist-bumping with Sonic. Great, everyone loved Jake, even Kitty and Sonic. "Can't stand that kid." Ralph muttered as he followed the group onto the train for Litwak's photo booth. "You and me both." Calhoun grumbled from astride him. At least one person agreed with him.

* * *

"Alright, give her some room." Sour Bill commanded, who had temporarily assumed reign over Sugar Rush while Vanellope remained unable to fulfill her duties. He'd managed to get them all back into the game and seated in a clearing of lollipops. He handed Vanellope a brown sugar bag and instructed her to breathe into it in the hopes that it would stop her hyperventilating. For the most part, the racers had calmed down a bit after Vanellope's break down, if only because of the temporary shock it caused. They were thankfully following his orders to quiet down and give the president her space, but he hadn't been able to get Jubileena to leave her side. Oh well, at least she wasn't contributing to the madness like the others had.

Once Vanellope's breathing evened a bit, Sour Bill began to prod, "Do you think you can start to tell us what happened from the beginning?" When she nodded, everyone went absolutely silent and leaned in as close as they could for the recounting of events.

* * *

"Uh… what is that?" Ralph asked hesitantly as Kitty led them to a strange contraption.

"That's our ride!" Kitty responded with the answer Ralph had been dreading.

* * *

"And that's when The Muffin Man yelled something about stopping Candlehead. The next thing I knew, we were both back in the train tunnel." Vanellope finished as her audience listened with wide eyes.

"You forgot the last part!" Jubileena interjected.

"What part? It all happened so fast…"

"Right before we ended up back in the station, he turned around and grabbed our arms. And I could've sworn I heard him say 'sorry!' right before we blacked out or whatever it was."

"Oh yeah, I kind of remember that…" Vanellope conceded, rubbing her arm subconsciously.

"Oh no…" Crumbelina was the first to speak, "I wonder if Candle's ok…" The others solemnly nodded in agreement.

* * *

Panting, the doctor looked up from his work to see if she was responsive yet. "Come on… Wake up, Candlehead" he whispered, too exhausted to raise his voice. Removing a hand from the wound he had been treating, he tentatively reached out and poked her cheek. Still no response. He let the hand rest on her cheek as he closed his eyes to let himself absorb the truth. He couldn't do anything else for her; he'd failed.

* * *

_True Word Count for Panic. Sheer, Bloody Panic:_ 2,207  
_True Word Count for story thus far:_ 22,919

* * *

**Q&A: **Hey look! A new section! Rather than typical reviews, I decided to start a Q&A where you can ask any question you like about the story, my writing style, etc... I'm gonna start this off answering some feedback I got on my writing style for this story, and so I wanted to take a little time to address that here.

**Q:** _I_ _feel that there is (not pun intended with the title) a "disconnect" with some of the story plots, like it jumps from one idea to another, without a type of transition or not enough explanation of plots of ideas.  
_**A:** Good catch! One reason why I changed the name to "Disconnection" is because of that style... I really wanted to portray this story more from the perspective of the characters, so it's not a completely omniscient perspective like a lot of third person stories nowadays. I kinda want to play with the reader's mind and emotions, pulling them in right alongside the characters so they're figuring things out at the same pace the characters are. Now, despite that 'first person' feel I'm trying to give the story, I'm still maintaining an overall 3rd person perspective, and as such, I'm also "mind jumping" from one character into another, and sometimes with little to no warning. The idea is that you'll figure out who it pertains to as you read it, and once you get acclimated to the various personalities, your mind will start to perceive who's thinking/speaking without me having to explicitly state who is right away. And at a higher level, you may have noticed that when I skip around different scenes, it's because I'm basically trying to create a 'real time' feel... as in, this is what all the characters are going through at this time... and when I cut to another scene, time in the previous scene hasn't stopped, I've just switched the reader to another camera's scene while the first camera keeps rolling. I realize that this can get a little confusing; and if I forget to fill a plot hole, please let me know! In the meantime, please bear with me; the first arc of any story is usually the most confusing as that's when the stage is being set and you've only just begun to start peeling back the layers. By the end of this arc, most of the questions I'm building up here should be answered, and the latter part of this fanfic won't be quite so mysterious, however I do plan to keep up this hybrid first person / third person perspective of writing.

**Q:** _When Ralph washed up on the beach in the new game that replaced Sugar Rush, I don't really understand how he got there_  
**A:** Are you referring to when Jake rescued him from the ocean, or how Felix and Ralph got to the game in the first place? (Oh geez, this is a great start to my Q&A, answering a question with another question!) For the former, it was in the Newport Party chapter. Ralph sort of overcompensated for the sandy turf and gained too much momentum, and therefore ended up falling into the ocean. Now yes, I realize that riptides are usually a little further out in the water, but since it's an "OC" video game, I can make my own rules. :P As for how they got the game in the first place, it was during the Mission Improgrammable 2 chapter that I hinted at it; when they were having a conference with Jake and Sonic. Sonic wanted to know what they were doing at the gate to the new game (which in the beginning of the chapter I pointed out that it was roughly near the Whack-a-mole, where we all know was Sugar Rush's spot) and Ralph explained that it was the doctor's orders to go there, so he could come to terms with Sugar Rush being replaced by Laguna Beach Lifeguard. Felix, as Ralph's best friend, went along for morale support. Since it's just another arcade game in Game Central Station, they got there just like they did to any other game, depicted in the movie as being a train ride out of Fix-It Felix Jr., a treck across Game Central Station, and a train ride up into Laguna Beach Lifeguard.

**Q:** _When the Sugar Rush racers where trying to name the cat they found in Vanellope's castle and were talking about that they named their clones. When did they gain the ability to clone themselves?_  
**A:** As a general rule of thumb, things that are part of bonus chapters typically aren't all that important, so don't overthink them. The reason that was in there was just to explain my theory for how color palette swaps REALLY work in the game world. Only reason I stuck that in there was because the movie had some 'cameo's from some of the Sugar Rush racers' palette swaps, and I thought it would be fun to explain where they came from. My theory being that the racers themselves are able to make a clone of themselves to fill up the roster, and as such, they also decide on the name for them. Since the palette swaps in the movie had pretty darn ridiculous names, I wanted to have a little argument among the racers about how horrible they were at naming their clones. All just fun and games, nothing pertinent to the overall story.

**Q:** _I understand that you can't explain every idea in the story and at times it may be "difficult to read" to sort of peak a readers curiousity about what a certain idea is and make him or her think how that idea is going to be incorporated in the story_  
**A:** Exactly! As explained in the author's note before this chapter, and in the first Q&A answer, my goal is to get the readers thinking, plant clues ahead of time (both legit and misleading ones), and give them an opportunity to try and figure out what's happening, just like the characters are.

**Q:** _Will there be more cameos in the future?_  
**A:** Yes, there will be... but here's a fun clue: expect the unexpected! My goal here is to make a 'sequel' to the movie in a way. Now as a piece of written work, there will be many obvious difference from that of a movie; but I do want to preserve the overall characteristics the movie had. Distinct characters, clean, action-packed storylines, corny humor, cameos, and a boatload of geeky nostalgia and references!

Thanks for participating in the first Q&A session! If you have any further questions in regards to my answers here, or any other questions pertaining to the story or writing, or just anything you can't figure out and you want an explanation to, feel free to leave a review or PM me, and I'll address it as soon as I can. Be warned though that if answering your question will result in a spoiler, my only answer may be "You'll find out~" :D

* * *

**Review Responses: ** Once again, thank you all for your continued support! In light of some reviews being covered already in the Q&A section, the review response section will probably be a lot smaller from now on...

_Becky Blue Eyes_ - Hahaha, 'gooey clump of cuteness'... may I use that line if I find a use for it? (Or maybe a variant?) Yes, I aim to make some of my characters' relationships into a gooey clump of cuteness... xD As for Candlehead screwing everyone over, I was hoping ya'll would be a little more worried about Candle screwing herself over :( As The Muffin Man alluded to in this chapter, whatever damage they all may sustain will not be fatal... Candle on the other hand... And as for what was spying on Jake, you'll have to wait an see... _ Keep it in the back of your mind; it's a clue for the latter part of the story... and there's still so much to cover in this part...

_Becky Blue Eyes & Dixie Darlin_ - You guys had NO idea how happy I am to hear that you like my OC Jake! I've had so much fun writing him so far, and I've already got a ton of other things I wanna get him to do In all honesty, the only reason I didn't scrap this chapter (minus the necessary Muffin Man / Candlehead scenes) was because I wanted to document Jake and Kitty's first meeting, 'cause I felt like Jake's interaction with Kitty would be so much more unique than the other characters who interact with her.

_WhatNames_ - ...please don't kill me... but don't despair! (slight spoiler alert!) I still plan on having Candlehead appear in future chapters... now whether that's in flashbacks/resurrection/reset/upgrade/turn-back-time mode, I'm not gonna say... _


	10. Turbulence

**Phase I, Level 7: ****Turbulence**

"And just what IS our ride?" Ralph asked tentatively.

"Don't choo play wit' me, foo'! I know you know what it is, even if you wanna try an' make me think ya think I don't !" Kitty replied in a huff, convinced that he knew all along and just wanted to annoy her.

"Dude! it's got surfboards on the sides!"

"Uhh… last time I rode in something like that, I nearly flattened half the characters in Game Central Station… and nearly demolished Sugar Rush!" Ralph felt the need to point out in order to justify his curiosity which Kitty had found bothersome.

"Don't worry Ralph, this model's a lot more primitive and stable than the one you swiped from Hero's Duty that time." Calhoun assured.

"I thought that was just an escape pod, honey?"

"Yes, but it was still jet powered like a normal airplane."

"We're riding in an AIRPLANE!?" Ralph panicked. Especially after that incident with the 'just an escape pod', he wanted to keep both feet planted firmly on the ground.

"What's wrong, baby boy? Scared?" Kitty teased.

"No way! I'm not scared!"

"Then prove it! Last one to the bird's a rotten egg!" Sonic challenged, and was in the plane before the others had even taken a step.

"Whoahhh… DOUBLE air-surfboard, all the way! How totally awesome!" the easily amused lifeguard called, and was quite easily the second person aboard. The rest took their time to get there, which may have had something to do with the fact they were the ones carrying all the luggage.

Kitty was the third to alight the aircraft, and she surprised the others by heading straight to the front and seating herself in the pilot's seat.

"What!? YOU'RE driving!?" Ralph exclaimed, suddenly seriously considering aborting the mission altogether.

"Gah-doi, dude, she's in the pilot's seat, t'cha." Jake interrupted, who probably also thought himself the wing-man now, judging by his seat by the window closest to the right wing, as if the seat you claimed suddenly qualified a person for the role.

"Mmhmm. Got a problem wit' 'at?" Kitty replied, challenging him with a look that said if he dared, he'd end up runway meat.

"Oo! I'm co-pilot!" Sonic exclaimed, teleporting mid-way through his declaration right next to Kitty.

"If anyone's co-piloting, it's ME, Spikey. I'm the only one here who's actually QUALIFIED to!" Calhoun asserted, picking the hedgehog up by the scruff of his neck.

"Hey! NO ONE picks up a hedgehog!" Sonic indignantly yelped, running in mid-air in a futile attempt to release himself with sheer speed alone.

"Ex-CUSE me? This is MY aircraft, and ya'll need ta SIT DOWN, SHUT UP, and BUCKLE UP… 'afore I throw ya'll out an' LEAVE ya here. I'd like ta see yous find a way to complete your mission THEN!" Kitty's commanding tone and finite words got even Calhoun to follow orders and take her seat.

"It's ok, darling. We can sit together now!" Felix soothed his grumbling wife, displaying his trademark honey-glow expression as his excitement at the prospect grew. This expression soon won Calhoun over and by the time they reached proper altitude, her attitude also normalized.

With everyone in their assigned seats, they finally began the first leg of their journey. '_This is it, we're gonna find them... I'll find you, Vanellope._' Touching his minty necklace for support, Ralph closed his eyes and braced himself for takeoff.

* * *

Leaving Sour Bill and the donut cops in charge of staking out the train station for any signs of Candlehead or the Muffin Man, Vanellope led the others in a trip back to the castle, where they were to get some food, as they were all in dire need of nourishment and rest. They were about halfway there when a rumbling sound began from the palace, and rippled out in all directions. As it approached, even the ground itself seemed to flow with the ripples, and by the time it reached the group, she realized that the ground WAS moving. It trembled and shook beneath them, eliciting panicked cries from all present. The earthquake proceeded past them and continued out until it reached the very borders of Sugar Rush, destroying landscape as it proceeded.

When all was calm, Snowana was the first to speak, "Wh-what was that?"

Vanellope wasn't sure, but something felt –wrong-. Ever since she had found herself back in the train tunnel, something had felt very wrong. It may have just been her sudden loss in glitching ability, but something told her it was more than that; the feeling kept growing steadily worse. Forcing herself to keep composure and looking about her to see who else was still composed, Vanellope started issuing orders, if for no other reason than to keep them busy so they wouldn't erupt into another panic.

"Gloyd, I want you to lead the guys in a border patrol. Take your racing cars and circle out to the limits of Sugar Rush looking for any damages and abnormal activity. Minty, take Snowanna and Adorabeezle and see if the bakeries have sustained any damages; utilize any unharmed factories to start producing materials to fix the damages we find. Taffyta, you're in charge of rounding up all the candy citizens. They're going to have questions too, and we're all going to report back to the castle in 2 hours for a debriefing. Crumbelina and Jubileena, you're with me. We're going to check out the castle." The other racers nodded and dispersed to do their duties. That is, all except Taffyta, who pulled Vanellope aside.

"Why am I doing this by myself? I… I don't think I can do it!" She protested, and bit her lip to keep back sobs that were threatening to burst forth. Putting a hand on Taffyta's shoulder for reassurance, Vanellope responded, "Don't say that, Taffyta. It's because I KNOW you're capable that I didn't assign anyone to go with you. You're the strongest person I know, so I ask you to keep up a strong stance for all the citizens of Sugar Rush, because I know they all look up to you."

"Well, I know THAT!", Taffyta scoffed, her old self showing through for a moment, "But… Candlehead was always the one who looked up to me the most!" That did it. The floodgates were opened and Taffyta's mascara was running down her cheeks as she sobbed.

Vanellope's expression softened as she witnessed this, and taking pity on her, motioned to Crumbelina. "Alright, take Crumbelina with you. And don't worry, I'm sure Candlehead is perfectly fine." The president assured with a smile, even though her gut feeling told her that was most likely a lie.

As Jubileena and Vanellope walked off in the other direction to get to the castle, Jubileena asked, "Tell me honestly, Vanellope, do you think Candlehead will come back ok?"

Taking her time to respond, if only to stay composed, the crestfallen leader whispered, "I certainly hope so… but I don't have a good feeling about it; not at all."

* * *

The doctor winced as a bit of code dripped out of the pipeline and fell on his face. All things considered, the patching job was going fairly well, although the initial reconnection seemed to cause a bit of a stir when he soldered it back together. Now it was just a matter of trying to get as much data back in as he could before he finished closing it up – another bit of data leaked out and landed on his arm - that is, if he could get data to stop falling out, anyway.

Something caught his eye this time. The spot on his arm where the data had collided and been rejected had fizzled with blue zeros and ones for a second. '_Vanelleope's glitch…_' he reasoned to himself. He had stolen – with every intent of returning it, of course - that bit of code from her before he sent them back to the train tunnel so that he could teleport down the busline Candlehead had got herself sucked into. Without it, he wouldn't have stood a chance of getting ahead and intercepting the data transfer like he had. If only it had been enough. With a depressed sigh, he suppressed the tears that threatened to fall yet again, and tried to get back to work instead.

'_Wait…_' Eyes widening as he was struck with a revelation, he dropped what he was doing and immediately rushed back to Candle's side. His hands alternated between himself and Candlehead, and after a few clock cycles, he was panting with exhaustion. "Come on, Candle… Come back to me" he pleaded, unable to stop the tears coming this time, which only obstructed his vision and inhibited his ability to work efficiently.

"Mm…" A groan sounded and the vibration felt like heaven on his hand. Eyes snapping open, he cried, "Candle! Can you hear me?!" Wiping the excess moisture from his face, he cupped her face with both hands and tried to get a further response. "Wake up, Candlehead, please!" Another groan sounded, followed by a bit of fidgeting. He was so beside himself with joy, he came close to crushing her with a hug before he caught himself and let go just as quickly as he'd latched on.

"Who…?" The first intelligible reply came.

"It's me, Dr. Muffin Man. How are you feeling, Candle? Does it hurt anywhere?"

Apparently it hurt quite bad, 'cause a whimper was her only reply.

"Alright, Miss Candlehead, just hold still and I'll try to get rid of the pain…"

* * *

"That was TOTALLY AWESOME!" Jake yelled as he disembarked from the airplane, "Yo, Sonic! Race ya to that big building over there!"

"Hah! You don't stand a chance, buster!" Sonic called, but did slow up out of courtesy for his new friend as he chased after him.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Ralph declared, green-faced and wobbly-legged.

"If that got you sick, just wait 'til our NEXT flight!" Kitty declared, laughing and giving Ralph a good slap on the back.

"Hah. Very funny..." he shot back sarcastically. Kitty wouldn't scare him so easily.

"I ain't kiddin' you, that was just the ride ta get to the regional airport here. And after that, we gonna need an international flight!"

"WHAT!?"

"Don't worry, Ralph, the larger planes are a lot more comfortable." Calhoun reassured.

"Oo, HOW comfortable?" Felix inquired, hoping that meant he and his wife could get a private room.

"Not THAT comfortable; keep your hat on." Calhoun burst his bubble mercilessly.

Once they had made their way to the airport building, Ralph discovered that there were quite a few other characters roaming about this one, rather than back at Kitty's, when they had been the only ones there. He didn't recognize any of these characters either, though he noticed that some were dressed similarly to Kitty, and also had a blue ethereal appearance.

"Are those friends of yours?" Ralph asked, pointing out a few of them to her.

"They're in the mail server business, but I don't see anyone I know right now. Regardless, I suggest you keep to yourself; never know what sort o' folk you'll run into at airports."

Not sure he wanted to risk assumption of sarcasm, Ralph decided to keep to himself, just in case. Luckily this was easy since their layover wasn't long at all, though he wasn't too keen on getting back up in the air either.

* * *

"So far, so good!" Jubileena called happily.

"All clear here!" Vanellope echoed back. She was pretty darn glad that so far, the castle proved to be in pristine condition.

"Guess that leaves the Fungeon." Jubileena mused. Not that anyone cared if anything HAD happened to the Fungeon. For a place with 'fun' in its name, it really wasn't that happening of a place. Maybe if they added some disco balls and music or something…

Unfortunately their spotless report on the castle was tarnished when they reached the Fungeon, for there was a large pit through the floor, and the circumference encompassed nearly the entire grand entryway, leaving the rest of the passageways inaccessible – which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. However, with the rest of the castle resting on this foundation, it called into question the structural soundness of such a set up.

"How deep is it?" Jubileena asked.

"Only one way to find out!" Vanellope announced, then picking up a stray piece of rock candy, chucked it into the opening and waited to hear feedback. None came.

"Maybe you should try a bigger piece?" Jubileena suggested hopefully.

* * *

Ralph was quite pleased to find Calhoun's statement to be true. This regional plane was quite cozy and spacious, all things considered – like the fact that they were all TRAPPED… in a BOX… in the AIR. By the end of this flight, he still hadn't quite gotten his 'sea legs', but was hoping that the next flight, since it was bigger than the regional, should be even more comfortable, right?

When they landed at the international airport, the only phrase he could think to describe it was "chaotic monolith". There were planes taking off and landing everywhere – and indeed, their plane had to do a few 'circles' before its turn to land, which didn't at all help his seasickness – and there wasn't just one HUGE building… there were SEVERAL. He suddenly had a lot more respect for Kitty's assistance in this mission and her overall abilities – anyone who could navigate a system like this without getting lost deserved a medal or something. He wondered how Kitty might feel about accepting a medal for her assistance – acquired by a little visit to Hero's Duty. He chuckled to himself at the mental image of Kitty circumnavigating a maze of Cy-bug eggs; with her airport navigation abilities, she just might stand a chance.

When they were finally able to disembark - which for some reason took a lot longer than at the regional airport – he was slammed with how busy it was. It was easily more crowded and confusing than 20 Grand Central stations! Every which way he looked, oodles of characters, personnel, and baggage were in his sights. The sounds, too, where overwhelming. People were all conversing, calling, and bustling; personnel were shouting over their frustrated customers; loudspeaker announcements were drowned out by the din. It was so loud, he hardly noticed when Kitty and the rest of the group had started to move off to who knows where. "Hey, wait for me!" He called, but was most likely not heard.

* * *

When Candlehead had fully come to, she was still rather disoriented and shaken up, and the Muffin Man's haggard appearance didn't aid to soothe her nerves any. He was sweating profusely now, and his breathing was noticeably labored – truth be told, he looked a little worse off than Candlehead.

Despite her own anxiety, Candle asked, "Are you ok, Mister?"

"For the time being, as good as I'll ever be. But we'll need to make good headway to get back while we're still both in relatively good shape. Once you're back in the game, your code should stabilize and you'll feel a lot better."

She looked apprehensive, however, so forcing a small smile, the doctor added, "Here, look…" And with that he scooped up a bit of code that had fallen from the bus line, rolled it in his palms a bit, then presented it to the traumatized girl.

He grinned with self-satisfaction as her pupils grew big as saucers and face beamed involuntarily as she beheld it. "It's so SHINY!" She exclaimed, snatching it at once and holding it up to admire it better. It was but a simple spoon, but probably also the shiniest piece of cutlery she'd ever see.

"I know how much you like shiny things." he chuckled, though the excess muscle motion it took ignited a fresh wave of pain. "Now let's get moving" he called.  
'_I don't have much time..._'

* * *

_True Word Count for Turbulence: 2,655  
True Word Count for story thus far: 25,572_


	11. Journeying Pains

**Phase I, Level 8: ****Journeying Pains**

Ralph sighed impatiently as he sat on the too small seat in one of the many waiting areas. He felt very much alone despite all the people present, for Sonic and Jake had gone off who knows where to entertain themselves while they waited, and the other travelers were graciously picking up on his 'leave me alone' vibes and granting him some space. The layover here was several hours more than the last one had been, which was a point of grave annoyance for him, but was actually a blessing in disguise for Calhoun and Felix – they were still held up in security and baggage check points with some… _complications_. They weren't the only ones either, apparently, for even now he could overhear an exchange between one of the baggage personnel and a farmer.

"Sir, you only registered eight sheep for transport."

"When I registered, there WERE eight sheep. I don' reckon you ever heard of Farmville? The sheep there have a way of… _multiplying_… and there's no control over it, 'less you can stop time."

Growing bored of listening in on that exchange, he returned his attentions to the transaction between Calhoun and her baggage check clerk. By the looks of things, it was starting to get rather heated.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but we cannot allow you to bring firearms on an international flight!" the clerk argued, indicating the array of suitcases and baggage Calhoun had brought along with her. Evidently, when she had said "A girl needs her things." she didn't mean anything along the lines of clothing, toiletries, or makeup, but rather firearms and ammunition.

"I told you, I'm willing to send some of it back, but we can't proceed completely unarmed!"

"And where exactly are you going that you'd need to be armed with an entire arsenal?"

"Listen, buddy, these don't even scratch the surface. I left all the super powered guns at home, and only brought the tamer ones!"

"Including an M4?"

"Two actually… And yes, it's JUST an M4, so what's the problem here?"

"It's airline policy, Ma'am; no firearms."

"Come on! At least let me keep the Glock!"

"You know I can't do that, Ma'am."

"And I can't let the people I love continue this mission without protection. Now you let me through this checkpoint with at least this, or you'll regret the day you were born." No one could deny how cool she looked delivering this line with calm conviction, however the security guards started an immediate ruckus when she pulled a concealed handgun on the clerk at the word 'this'.

"Put DOWN the Glock, or we'll shoot!" One of them announced, sending all the people present into a panic.

Sighing and raising her hands in surrender, Calhoun snidely responded "This one's a Ruger, blockheads! Keep your helmets on, it's not even loaded." With that, she demonstrated by flicking the slide a few times to prove it before tossing it to the ground.

"Looks like we'll be spending the rest of the layover in a little interrogation room, honey. Sorry about that." Tamora said to Felix, who had been standing by anxiously.

"That's alright, honey blossom, at least we'll have some alone time in between interrogations."

As Ralph watched his friends get escorted away for questioning, he nonchalantly made his way over to the shaken clerk. He had been struck with an idea, and intended to be of some use while the Fix-Its were otherwise detained.

"Hey…" – Ralph eyed the clerk's nametag – "Chuck. I was told to come relieve you of some uh… contraband."

"Huh? I didn't even call it in ye-"

"Chuck! You alright, buddy? You look like you've just seen a ghost!" Ralph interrupted, hoping to distract him with faked concern.

"Well actually, this crazy chick pointed a gun in my face and-"

"Oh man, I know how that feels; you have my empathy! Tell ya what, I'll handle matters here to get you a replacement; you just go and get yourself some rest and refreshment, alright?"

"Well thanks, Mr. uh…"

"Uh… Well, Chuck, the name's… Norris. That's it, Norris. We haven't been formally introduced yet, but this cute girl I work with won't stop talking about how great you are; I feel like I know you already!"

Chuck blushed furiously, "You mean… Nancy? Was she really talking about me?"

"Oh yeah, buddy!" Here Ralph leaned in and whispered, "Between you and me, I think she's got it bad for you." Straightening up again, Ralph acted like he suddenly had a brilliant revelation, "Hey listen, why don't I take you round to see her after you're all rested up? I'm sure she'll be impressed beyond all reason with your heroic face off with the psycho gunman!"

Chuck's face lit up at the prospect, and he agreed enthusiastically before Ralph could even finish his proposal. As soon as poor Chuck was out of sight, Ralph hoisted up Calhoun's luggage and headed down the first relatively deserted hallway he spotted.

The only inhabitant in it was an older lady, who was currently fawning over a kitten. Normally, Ralph might have thought it strange for there to be animals in an airport, but having just witnessed Mr. Farmville guy and his sheep, he wouldn't be shocked at anything now.

"Who's a cute kitten? You are! Yes, you are, you adorable little cupcake! Oooo I wanna take you home and – OW! BAD cat! No treat for kitties who bite the hand that feeds them. Hmph!" The lady exclaimed, and soon stomped out of the hallway, leaving Ralph alone with the luggage.

"Nice work, Ralph!"

Ralph nearly jumped out of his skin. He had THOUGHT he was alone. Now turning back, he beheld Kitty standing before him, and the kitten gone. Oh right, he'd forgotten she could do that.

"Geez, Kitty, stop sneaking around like that!"

"Ooo I'm sorry, didn't mean to scare ya, baby boy, with my FEROCIOUS little kitten form." she retorted in a sarcastic apology.

"I wasn't scared!" Ralph protested, his face pouting in annoyance.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Kitty replied, waving it off. "Now take those bags and follow me, I know how we can get 'em on the plane!" With that, she was darting off again on all fours, making Ralph feel quite ridiculous as he toted around a large amount of luggage concealing weaponry, chasing after a kitten to top it all off.

* * *

Candlehead and the doctor were both panting heavily at this point. They'd been walking for over two hours now, and both being in compromising health had made the journey feel more like a death march. Seeing Candlehead's legs beginning to wobble, the Muffin Man reached out and stopped her by the shoulder. "Let's rest for a while".

Candle didn't need to be told twice. No sooner than he had touched her shoulder, Candle crumpled down to the floor and lay there, sprawled out in exhaustion.

Also taking a seat, the doctor commended her, "You're a real trooper, Miss Candle, and your performance thus far has been nothing but admirable."

Too weak to make a reply, but pleased with the compliment, Candlehead merely smiled in reply before closing her eyes to submit to contended rest.

It pained him, to drive her so hard, but time demanded it. Truth be told, the only reason he'd been able to keep up such a façade of decent health was the desire to spare her from worry and further trauma. Now that her eyes were safely closed in rest, he had a little freedom to let down the curtain, so he let his face wrench in pain and allowed his posture to contort in whatever way afforded him even the slightest relief. Without an audience and his guard down, his image was flickering with zeros and ones as his code glitched in protest to his wounds. Attempting to doctor himself a bit, he put a hand to his stomach and rearranged the code in a more efficient way to make up for all the code he'd lost. He had to marvel at the seemingly magical properties of Vanellope's glitching code, for it was the only thing that was keeping this avatar alive. When she had evolved the code on her own, she broke all laws of the computer world, and this mutated code was also breaking all the laws of code coverage to keep this avatar entity up and running, for he had given most of his code to Candle. So much of her code had been ripped from her when she had been sucked into the pipeline, and was now gone forever, having no doubt been reformatted as it passed through the processor. The code he had first tried to heal her with wasn't anywhere near substantial enough to make the repairs, and was easily rejected. Candlehead would've been lost forever if she hadn't gotten the character code transplant he gave her from his own body. Although she didn't know it, Vanellope had effectively saved them both with her glitching code. He would never have even had the idea to do a character code transplant if he hadn't just done one with Vanellope to steal her glitching code. That had been a spur of the moment idea, to use that ability to speed across the motherboard and save Candlehead, but in the long run, it also sparked the idea of a more extensive transplant that ultimately succeeded in Candle's revival. To top it off, there's no way that transplant would have been possible if there wasn't a way to preserve himself during the operation. He had taken a gamble, and the glitch code hadn't disappointed – it allowed him to keep his form long enough to complete the procedure, and he hoped would continue to work a little longer so he could escort Candle back safely.

He had been so lost in thought, he hadn't noticed Candle stir from her catnap. He was thusly quite surprised when she called out in alarm, "Mr. Muffin Man! Are you ok!? Why are you glitching!?"

Hurrying to regain control over the glitch code to portray a normal form to her, he quickly made the excuse, "Oh, uh, I just needed to borrow Vanellope's glitch code so I could run fast enough across the motherboard to save you… Seems I can't control it as well as she can though" He added a smile at the end so she wouldn't worry. The dear girl let her emotions be influenced by her surroundings too easily – like her elation at the shiny spoon, for instance – and he didn't want to be the cause of a negative turn of emotion by telling her the whole truth.

She seemed won over by it easily enough, and returned the smile with an exclamation, "I'm really happy you did, by the way. Thank you!" Before he could plead with her not to make such a big deal of it, he was surprised by a sudden show of grateful affection that made him flinch. The flinch was not only caused by sheer surprise at the hug, but also by the pain it caused, having pressure applied to already too-thinly stretched code. He swallowed the pain however and returned the hug quickly before urging her to her feet and insisting they press on to reach their destination.

* * *

"I've gotta hand it to ya, Kitty, that was pretty slick!" Ralph admitted as he hoisted the last bag into the plane. Genuinely pleased with Kitty's work, he thought he might actually be able to get along with her if things continued in this fashion.

"I done tol' ya, there ain't no delivery Kitty cain't make! If Calhoun wants her guns delivered to our I.P. address destination, then Kitty's gonna make it happen!"

Feeling a bit slighted at Kitty's ignoring his participation in making it happen, he was back to thinking that Kitty was a bit too conceited to be a good friend. Sure, the smuggling wouldn't have been possible without Kitty, but it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been there either. They had made a good team; Kitty doing reconnaissance as a kitten around each corner and letting him know if it was safe to advance or not, and also causing feline distractions as needed to clear the way. But Ralph had done all the hard work of carrying around all that heavy luggage – for Kitty surely couldn't carry it when she was in feline form – and it wasn't all that easy making it look easy either. It would've aroused more suspicion when they did have to pass by people if the cases looked heavy – as firearms made them. Kitty had relabeled them with some airline tags she swiped as 'fragile – dolls', and even added the personal touch of sticking on some sparkly pink stickers she'd lifted from a gift shop, with a corresponding label "Miss Kitty's Toys". They were pretty confident this would help avoid suspicion, but that didn't guarantee being in the clear, hence why he had to pretend he really was carrying a lightweight bag of dolls.

He had been thinking about how to bring this up so as to get his fair share of recognition, when Kitty spared him the trouble, "Good job to you too, ya know, especially snatching the bags in the first place. Didn't know ya had it in you! With a lil' time and practice – as instructed by the best, yours truly – we could get quite the heist team togethah!"

For the sake of staying in Kitty's good graces – for now that he'd seen her talents first hand, he decided it would be in his best interests to NOT end up on her bad side – Ralph chose to ignore the hint of self-superiority Kitty made in her proposal and simply said "Deal." and held out a hand to shake on it. When Kitty returned the gesture, he was shocked to find her hands to be nearly as petite as Vanellope's. "We'd better get back and find out what became of Felix and Calhoun" he stated, before he allowed himself too much time to get depressed by thoughts of Vanellope and their first handshake deal.

* * *

Vanellope flung herself onto her bed with an exasperated groan, sick and tired of all her presidential duties that occupied the last couple of hours. It was all over now, for the time being. The others had done as she asked and all the citizens were debriefed in the grand ballroom of the Castle as to the current situation. There still had been no word on Candlehead and the Muffin Man's whereabouts and conditions, and the donut cop security division personnel were taking shifts and giving status reports on the hour. For now, things were going smoothly enough that she could afford this much needed break, and before she knew it, she had slipped off into a troubled slumber. Nightmares of separation from Ralph, Jubileena, Taffyta, Candle, and all her other friends plagued her mind, and though it only felt like a second, she was awakened an hour later by a frantic Taffyta bursting into her room.

"Didn't you hear!? We have a QUARTER ALERT!" she cried upon entry.

"A WHAT!?" that certainly got her out of bed in a flash.

"What are we gonna do!? Candle was on the roster!" As soon as the platinum blond uttered the name, she had burst into tears again at the reminder of her best friend still being MIA.

Thinking fast, Vanellope assured her, "Don't worry, we still have Candle's cart, so the roster should recognize her attendance once it rolls over her spot. We just need to create a clone to drive it. Go get Juby, Minty, or Adorabeezle to make one of their palette swaps up real quick."

"But that's just it! Juby's clone is already on the roster, and Minty and Adorabeezle said they haven't been able to succeed in making a clone since a little mishap when they were trying to fix up one of the bakery machines!"

That could be a bit of a problem. "Well what about the other racers that weren't on the roster?"

"That would be Swizzle and Gloyd, and they went out again to do a more thorough perimeter check, 'cause they thought they saw something suspicious earlier, but didn't have time to check it out before your two hour deadline!"

Nearing hysterics now, Taffyta started pacing violently, and wringing her hands fiercely with apprehension. "And we have to be out on the race track like NOW!"

"Well then let's go!" Vanellope called, grabbing Taffyta by the wrist and practically towing her along as she ran through the castle to get to the starting line.

"But what are we gonna do!?"

"I'll think of something on the way, trust me!"

When they had arrived at the starting line, they found the others bustling about to get everything in order, and already the carts were all assembled. Glancing nervously at the countdown clock, Vanellope saw that there were only a few clock cycles left before the game finished loading for the race induced by the quarter alert. She hopped into her cart, and noticing Taffyta's on her right, directly next to Candlehead's empty cart, Vanellope called out with inspiration, "Hey Taffy, why not make your own clone? You always said you had the perfect idea for one!"

"But! I've never done that before! And there's not enough time! Come on, Vanellope, haven't you asked enough of me! I just lost my best friend for all I know; I can't handle this stress!"

"It's BECAUSE of that I know you can!" Vanellope encouraged, "Because you'll do your best… for Candle's sake". Leaving Taffyta alone so she could concentrate on just that, Vanellope returned her attention to the racetrack, and braced herself for the countdown. The announcements were finishing up and the starting lights were lit. Here it comes… it's been WAY too long since she last raced, and with all this trauma and stress, this race would be the perfect distraction and medicine – especially because for all she knew, this could be their last. 3… 2… 1…

Ahhh… the pure adrenaline running through her veins now gave her such an exhilarating high, she hardly noticed when Candle's racing car zoomed past her, driven by a pink-haired and lemon-headed racer. '_Knew you could do it, Taffyta._'

* * *

The Muffin Man dove behind a wired wall, shoving Candle in ahead of him as he tried to keep them out of the dangers of the actively engaged motherboard. Ah swizzlesticks, the game was actually being played! There was no way they could traverse the motherboard safely now. They'd have to wait it out and hope the player lost interest quickly – especially because he sensed his condition worsening – so they could emerge from this temporary safe haven and complete their journey.

"What's going on?" Candle asked, worry steadily taking over her previous awe at all the pretty moving lights that had started up only seconds ago.

"Somebody's playing the game." he responded simply.

"WHAT!? But we haven't been played in ages! And I was on the roster! Not fair…"

The girl had a point… the game HADN'T been played in ages… and why ever not? And why was someone making a copy of the game?

"I haven't raced in so long…" Candlehead continued to talk to herself, "And now my code feels all funny… I wonder if I'll even remember HOW to race!" Suddenly she exclaimed, "Will I have to be reprogrammed to do it!?"

'_Reprogrammed…? Reprogrammed! That's it!_' It suddenly clicked in the Muffin Man's mind; it all made sense with that theory! Of course! The sporadic racing – gathering first hand data; the code copying – both for making a back up and for expansion preparation… Sugar Rush was being reprogrammed!

"Candle…" The doctor grabbed the confused girl by the shoulders as his eyes communicated his amazement, "You're a genius!" As if the girl wasn't already thrown off by a compliment that negated frequent comments to the contrary, the doctor only managed to stupefy her completely when he, in his moment of great elation, kissed her. It was but a quick peck, but it ignited a fiercely pink complexion on Candlehead's cheeks.

* * *

_**True word count for Journeying Pains**: 3,370  
**True word count for story thus far**: 28,944_

* * *

_**Q&A! **_

**Q:** _I think you should watch the "EZ Living 2" deleted scene. The second I saw that scene I thought of Jake and the Laguna Beach Lifeguard game from your story. To me it was like they were almost exactly the same._  
**A:** So I had to find that on Youtube… you're right! There are some definite similarities; that's just too weird! What's crazier is that the part when his medal starts melting, I had considered a similar thing with the candy flower when he was underwater in Laguna Beach Lifeguard. I decided against it however because I don't think he'd notice such a thing when he's basically drowning and about to be attacked by unidentified sea creature(s). Besides, hard candy is a lot more resilient in water than cookies and frosting are!

**Q:** _im kinda hoping for a bit of a romantic development with Ralph and vanellope, and since your summary says that they're at the mercy of a graphics programmer that brings me to the theory that perhaps sugar rush wasn't sold, so much as sent for an upgrade of sorts, perhaps to make the character appear a bit older in order to appeal to a larger audience. If this turns out to be true i believe that a Ralph/Vanellope pairing could be possible and not be all pedo_  
**A:** I had gotten a question about this earlier and answered it via PM so as not to produce any spoilers; but since it keeps coming up, I'll answer it here. I guess it's not that much of a spoiler since, as you pointed out, it is categorized under Romance as well. You may have noticed that its primary category is Adventure, since that's the gist of what I'll be writing it in. However the story is split into two parts, and this first part has very little romance to it since, as you pointed out, that would be 'all pedo'. You're very observant btw, and logical in your deductions; I'm impressed! As alluded to in the summary, Sugar Rush will be undergoing some massive code changes, which will indeed include an 'age upgrade…to appeal to a larger audience'. And yes, the older Vanellope x Ralph pairing will be explored… but not until part 2 of the story. Originally, this story idea started from that point 2 phase… but then I decided to expand it back to explain how things happened, introduce key characters sooner, and set the stage. I've had a ton of fun setting it up this way and writing part 1, however I do apologize to keep ya'll waiting for part 2 in all of its fluffy glory.

**Q:** _Is the airport like the Internet or something? Or the electricity mainframe of the city? And are the "planes" like emails or wire-travelling circuits?_  
**A:** You got it on your first try! It's exactly the internet! Alluded to when I introduced Kitty in Ralph's thoughts, which explained that she sent out e-mails from the photobooth (I'll address your question about kitty in the next question) Airports are routers and/or servers that re-route elsewhere, and planes are 'packets'. I'll leave the Google-ing of routing and packets up to you though :) Also, it seemed natural to me that if their 'local area connection' (albeit, connected through a common power surge strip instead of cat5 cables) was accessible by train, then the world-wide network could be accessible by plane!

**Q:** _What exactly is Kitty again, some sort of server or router program to go with her 'mail'?_  
**A:** Kind of, yes. I've compared her to Surge's appearance, and have made her role rather similar to his… that is the role of being the 'embodiment' of a piece of electronic hardware and its function. Just like Surge is the embodiment of the surge protector and thus responsible for protecting everything plugged into it from outside threat, Kitty's job is likewise to transfer data over the internet. Since her particular port is hooked up to a photo booth that sends e-mails, (For I thought such a thing to be the only thing I could reasonably see needing access to the internet at an arcade, and those photo booths that send you pictures over e-mail are all over the place these days) I made e-mail transfer her primary job, and hence the postal uniform.

**Q:** _I wonder if I can borrow the _ concept_  
**A:** I'm going to answer this question in general terms. If you like my ideas and/or quotes, I'm fine with people using them so long as they 1. Give credit to the original source (be that me, or the source I got it from – cause you may have noticed sometimes I pull quotes from things in pop culture, other movies, etc), 2. Don't copy the idea / scene directly, make it your own, and 3. Let me know where you post it, as I'm curious to see how you'll use it! That said, I would be honored for people to think my material worth using, so please do! :D

* * *

_**Review Responses**_

Becky Blue Eyes – "I knew the girl wasn't the most frosted of cupcakes" That quote made my day. xD May I use that if I find a place for it? (We're just sharing all sorts of ideas, aren't we? If I had the schedule for it, I'd say it'd be fun to collaborate sometime!) As for how the code is compensating, part of that was revealed the chapter after you wondered… a large crater-pit in the fungeon… and a shiny spoon. But I'll get more into that in later chapters. Ralph and Jake and Jake and Sonic… I plan to have fun with those relationships to the full extent! And yes, you're right, Jake and Sonic must (and will) have their own adventure! I've set the stage for it, I'm just not sure which chapter I'll put it in, or if I'll just make it a bonus chapter… we'll see.

Dixie Darlin – I'm really glad that you like my OC's interaction, like Jake and Kitty, and Ralph and Jake… man, I sure am centered around Jake… but he's a personal favorite of mine…

Awesome Stories May Occur – Actually, I was referring to the "Double rainbow all the way" meme (and auto-tuned song), but yeah, Jake would probably lay an egg if he came across a quadruple winged (er, surf-boarded) plane!

Iluvvanellopevonschweetz – First off, AWESOME username! I approve. xD So glad you're enjoying my fic! Yeah, Vanellope is definitely partly guilty for the rift between her and Ralph, despite Ralph blaming himself for all of it… And I must say, I'm pressed you're still reading when I did make Vanellope guilty, and you seem to love her so much… I hope I can do justice to Vanellope's character moving forward!

_**Everyone**_ – Thanks for all your support, responses, favorites, and follows! I am truly touched at the growing support of this fanfic! I had been planning to do something special for 5,000 views, but before I had a chance to do anything for it, it already crested 6,000 views! Ahhh can't keep up! You guys are too awesome!


	12. Bonus: Of Babes and Babies

**Bonus Level: Of Babes and Babies**

Felix anxiously handled his styrofoam cup as he and his wife sat in the interrogation room awaiting questioning. He had been hoping that the hospitality of their captors would continue past the provision of water and ultimately result in their release with only a warning. He'd long ago finished his water, and soon his cup would be nothing but pieces, so anxious was he. Glancing over at his wife, he noted that she was still calmly sipping her water. Such nerves of steal! Suddenly having a brilliant idea to overcome his fear, Felix broke the silence and said, "So... how do you feel about starting a family?"

Calhoun spat her water out, spraying water particles in her husband's face as of consequence of his nonchalant introduction to so delicate a subject.

"You don't want to?" the repairman asked dejectedly, interpreting her surprise as decline.

"It's not that, it's just... why are you bringing this up so suddenly?" Tamora questioned.

"Well, since we're... _alone..._"

"In an interrogation room. You really thought it would be a good time to bring up starting a family when we're in custody pending questioning on a firearms incident!?"

"Well, with what Ralph's been going through and us being there for him all the time, we just haven't had any time to ourselves to discuss it, so I didn't want to let this golden opportunity slide..."

"Alright. I'll let you be the one to tell our kid that we first thought of them in detention."

"You mean you want one!?" Felix beamed from ear to ear, possibly more so than was usual for his 'honey-glow'.

"I didn't say that - " Felix's face fell when she said this, " - but I'm open to discussion". This brought the honey-glow back full force.

"You do realize what a huge responsibility parenthood is, right?" Calhoun cautioned.

"Oh yes, ma'am, and what a joyous responsibility it is! Oh honey, it's gonna be delightful! Do you want a boy or a girl?" Obviously getting very excited over what he took to be an agreement to the prospect.

* * *

"Yo, Sonic! Check out the merchandise!" Jake exclaimed as a crowd of giggling girls went by, giggling all the more when he winked at them.

"Simply exquisite." Sonic agreed, though he wasn't looking at the girls. He was currently marveling over a jewelry display at one of the gift shops; a display of gold rings. He reached out and selected a particularly shiny gold ring to marvel at its superior grandeur over the ones he was so used to collecting at high speeds. Heck, if he knew stores like this existed where he could get them at his leisure, why had he spent his whole life racing after them as though his life depended on it? You know, his game's anniversary was just around the corner, and Sonic figured he deserved to treat himself to a nice ring every once in awhile. Resolving to buy one, he picked up the shiny gold one out of its box to check for a price.

Turning to join his companion and noticing the true object of Sonic's affections, Jake proclaimed, "Whoah, dude, slow down! I mean, those chicks were hot, but I had more of a fling in mind... you sure are committed, t'cha!"

"What?" Sonic asked, rather confused.

"Ok dude, if that's how you roll, I won't cramp your style... By all means, if you like it, put a ring on it, bro."

"Oh, no, that's not what I meant. You see, I collect rings - "

"WHOAH! I didn't know you were a serious ladies' man, bro! To get all the chicks begging for rings from you!? Dude! You have GOT to teach me your tricks! I bow to your superior chick-magnet-ness..."

Sonic would have protested and cleared up Jake's misunderstanding right then, if Jake's bow - for he had literally bowed at the word 'bow' - had not knocked over a couple children that were walking by, which sent them flying into the display Sonic had been looking at, and by the rules of the domino effect, would have crushed him, had he not thought fast and sped out of the way.

Turns out the rings from a jewelry store don't stick with you like the ones in a game do. Once his momentum slowed, Sonic realized he hadn't kept a tight enough grip on it, and it was now likely amongst all the others on the display that also fell to the floor. "Shouldn't be too hard to find" he mumbled to himself, reasoning that he was quite the expert on rings and could pick the shiniest one from among a thousand in a matter of seconds when the time called for it. Making a quick scan of the floor and easily identifying that sought after shiniest one, Sonic plucked it up and pocketed it for purchase - which he planned to do after he made sure the poor children were okay.

"Oh thank you, sir!" The curly blond haired lad offered, his accent giving clue to his origins from a game with a theme reminiscent of the dark ages. When the lad looked up from his bow of gratitude, Sonic visibly cringed. Surely this was the ugliest little boy he'd ever seen! Since when did little boys have a five o'clock shadow!? He may have suspected a little boy to be barefooted, but that didn't prepare him for the grotesque sight of them - they were covered with hair as thick as that on the top of his head! Eager to be out of sight of the deformed blond boy and his brunette counterpart, Sonic made a hasty "You're welcome.", hoisted Jake off the floor, and hurriedly made his way to the counter to purchase his ring. That taken care of and the unsightly children out of sight, Sonic finally replied to Jake's pleadings, which had continued to fall upon deaf ears during that whole interval.

"Yeah, Jake, sure; I'll teach you everything I know!" Which really wasn't anywhere near as much as Jake seemed to think. He thought for a fleeting moment what Jake might think of Amy, but then figured it really didn't matter; Jake was already off on some other tangent.

"Aw, dude! Check out the tiki bar! Man, this airport has EVERYTHING!" he cried, running on ahead and accepting a complimentary lei.

Though amused by his friend's antics, Sonic got to thinking that he should probably put his ring in a safer location than the box it came in, should Jake's clumsiness be proportional to his excitement. Removing his purchase from the gift box it was in, the hedgehog took a moment to admire its beauty. How could he have stuck it in a box to begin with! Or let it have touched the floor! Such magnificence should never come in contact with the filth of the ground! It was too beautiful, too extraordinary, too... _precious_. Slipping it on to his finger, he tossed the box into the nearest garbage can and made his way to the tiki bar where his friend was just donning his lei.

"Hey, Sonic! You should come get a lei too!" He called, turning back to face his friend. "...Sonic? Where are you?"

_'Did you have one too many tiki tumblers, my friend?' _Sonic thought in amusement, '_I'm right under your nose!_' His amusement faded, however, when Jake looked right through him, and still continued to call out his name, "Sonic! Where are ya, man!?" _'He... really can't see me!?_'

* * *

"I told you, Frodo! I don't think we're in the Shire anymore! We must be cautious who we run into; we don't know who's working for Sauron! I didn't like the looks of that overly-tanned elf and spiky blue dwarf... Are you even listening, mister Frodo?"

"Sam..." Frodo exclaimed with wide-eyed terror, "The ring... its... gone."

* * *

"I just don't know, Felix." Calhoun admitted. To be honest, the more he went on and on about all the specifics of their child, the more apprehensive she became. How could she, with her rough around the edges programming, ever manage the maternal care required for a child?

Despite his usual unobservant nature, Felix sensed her tension and interpreted the worry on her face quite accurately. "Oh, peach blossom, don't worry; I know you'd make a SUPERB mother!" he said, taking her hand in his. "And don't you worry; when your temper starts getting the better of you, I'll be there to whisper sweet nothings in your ear to calm you down."

The sergeant couldn't resist the urge and burst forth laughing. "Hah! There's only so many ways to sugar-coat non-existant whispers, tidily-winks. I'd make a soldier out of the kid faster than bacteria multiply in an incubator."

Ignoring her protest and just smiling at her in admiration, Felix just responded, "I love the way you come up with grotesquely amusing metaphors. They always give me the heebie-jeebies with a honey-glow."

"Uh... thanks? I think?"

She was saved from further discussion when their interrogators finally entered the room. Despite her prior dread when they had been brought in for questioning, Calhoun was now overjoyed to see them, since it brought a change in conversation that she found a little more welcoming than that of children.

* * *

"Oh well, guess he went off to pick up some chicks!" Jake reasoned to himself. "Wait a second! He didn't even take me with him! Some guru! He totally forgot his pupil! Alright Sonic, if you can hear me, know this! You can run, and you can hide, but you can't outrun or out-hide the Jakester! T'cha!" Stomping off in search of his 'guru', Jake suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and amended, "Oh yeah, I guess you -can- outrun me, being the fastest hedgehog and all, but I'll still get you... somehow... uncool, dude! Now I have to go pick up chicks on my own without a wing-man."

Sonic giggled to himself, despite not knowing if the ring also masked sound. Man, what a steal! He'd been chasing worthless rings all these years, and here was this ultimate ring in an airport! Best anniversary gift to himself ever! Not that he had ever bought himself a anniversary gift before... But with his great speed and this ring's powers of concealment, the possibilities for its use were endless! And for his first trick... sabotaging Jake's chick hunt.

* * *

"Are you sure you lost the ring around here, mister Frodo?"

"Yes, I remember I took it out to make sure no one had pick-pocketed, then before I knew it, we were on the ground when the tan elf bumped into us."

"Excuse me, did I hear you say you were missing a ring?" A store manager asked.

"Who wants to know?" Samwise asked cautiously.

"Oh I don't mean to be nosy, it's just that after the little spill at this display, I was able to put back every single ring; not one of them was missing... but we had just sold one to a Sonic character. I'm very sorry, but it seems we have mistakenly sold your ring to him. Please accept my apologies and feel free to select anything in the store you like that you deem of equal or greater value." he replied nervously, no doubt fearing a lawsuit.

"WHAT!?" Sam exclaimed. Frodo was too mortified for speech, and just stared blankly at the store manager as his face paled.

Seeing his friend's corpse-colored face, Sam immediately headed out from the store as he reassured, "Don't you worry, mister Frodo, I'll find that 'Sonic character', AND that ol' ring 'o yours!"

"If they don't find him first..." Frodo mumbled, a dark premonition overshadowing his consciousness.

* * *

Felix heaved a depressed sigh and sank back into his seat. Their accusers hadn't been nearly as hospitable as he would have liked - though at least they didn't throw him in a 'Fungeon'... that was a low point in his adventures in hospitality which he hoped he never had to encounter again - and sentenced them to be grounded (quite literally); banned from all flights for a year. They had left the Fix-Its alone in the questioning room again while they went to process the paperwork and book them one last flight - a one way ticket back to Litwak's arcade. Poor Ralph... after Felix had promised he'd be with him on his mission too! Now he had to abandon him at his greatest need; it was more than he could bear! Ashamed and disappointed in himself, the repairman sank in his chair and held his head in his hands. "What am I going to do?"

This audible thought woke Tamora from hers as she observed his misery. She cringed at the pitiable sight. This was her fault, after all, even if the airport's rules were just stupid and should be broken anyway. Seeking to cheer him up, she started, "Hey... A year under arcade arrest might not be so bad..." Blushing as she worked up the courage to say it, she finished with, "It could be a great chance to start that family..." Her words had the effect she had anticipated. In a flash, Felix had hopped up on his chair, grinned uncontrollably, and started hugging and kissing her in appreciation.

All of a sudden, however, he stopped his display of jubilee. "But... how are we going to adopt if we can't fly to any adoption agencies?"

She hadn't thought of that... uhhh quick, think of something! "Uhh... is there no local adoption at Litwak's? And who says it has to be through an agency? There are PLENTY of characters who need to be taken under wing. New games, abandoned games... heck, I bet Ralph could find us the perfect candidate from his H.E.R.O. program!"

"Well, I guess that's true." he admitted, though he thought it might be a little weird adopting a character they'd interacted with for awhile already.

"And it can be a boy; so we can train him to take after you!" Calhoun finished with a rare cheesy and affectionate smile.

"Oh boy!" Felix cried, ecstatic at the thought.

* * *

"Aw, dude! Really!?" Jake exclaimed in annoyance, wiping at the freshly acquired ketchup stain with a napkin. This was the third time now he'd attempted to enjoy his hot dog in peace when 'the wind' came and bumped into his chair just as he was taking a bite. What made it even worse was that each time, a group of cute girls was passing by, checking him out, then got turned off by his apparent slobbery. "Come on, Jake, my man! You gotta get your act together, t'cha!" Though it hadn't occurred to him that referring to himself in the third person probably wasn't going to help that goal.

It was then that a music video playing on the food court TV screens caught his attention. At first it was the catchy beat of the music, but then his attention was held when he noticed how odd it was. Not only could he not understand a word they were singing, they also had the strangest choreography he'd ever seen - and he'd been to a MASSIVE amount of dance parties, t'cha. It looked like the singer was trying to ride a dolphin or something - without the dolphin actually being there. What finally sold him was that he finally understood two words: "Sexy" and "Lady"... and boy, were the girls in the video lookers! It made absolutely no sense to him, but if this dude on the tube could get chicks that hot by singing gibberish and dancing like he was riding a dolphin, then it sure was worth a try himself!

Quickly learning the steps, Jake jumped up to join in, then realized he still had a ketchup stain on his white shirt. Perfect... he could use this to his advantage.

* * *

"Looks like I'm not needed here anymore!" Sonic mused to himself as he witnessed the sight of Jake dancing like he was riding a horse in the middle of the food court, with a bright red stain on his T-shirt. He couldn't help laughing as he noticed all the girls gathering around and laughing at the fool. "Maybe I can teach him a thing or two about girls after all!" He hadn't realized Jake was THAT bad off with feminine charm!

His opinion of Jake flipped dramatically when suddenly the seemingly-dimwitted lifeguard whipped off the T-shirt with the mesmerizing stain, revealing a perfectly sculpted surfer's torso; complete with a six pack. The girls who had previously been laughing at him suddenly gasped and turned to other activities like squealing, drooling, and even a swoon or two. Jake was certainly much smarter than he had given him credit for a moment ago, and now Sonic was kicking himself for inadvertently aiding him in the initial attention grabbing by causing the ketchup stain.

A chill ran up his spine as he suddenly felt the presence of something VERY evil. It seemed to resonate with the ring he was wearing - perhaps a side effect from wearing it too long? In any case, he was ready to take it off and join Jake in his little dance routine; he was getting quite jealous of all the attention. If the girls liked JAKE dancing like that, then how much MORE would they all like to see SONIC dancing like that!? Removing the ring and pocketing it, Sonic sped over and joined his friend.

"Yo, Sonic! Where ya been!? Hey, check out these fresh dance moves! The chicks love 'em!"

"Hah! Bet I can do them better!" Sonic challenged, putting his own super-fast move variations into the routine.

"Sweet, bro! Hey look! Here comes another one! We'll have ourselves a flash mob in no time!"

Sure enough, a character was dancing towards them, and also singing along! She was a cutie, for sure, with extremely long turquoise hair pulled into pigtails, high black boots and a mini skirt, and a red tattoo on her arm that read '01'.

When she had reached where they were, she rambled off a string of words in a language that definitely wasn't English. When she finished, Jake just gaped at her for a second before he said, "I have no idea what you just said... but I think I'm in love!"

Sonic just rolled his eyes at his companion's antics to win a pretty girl and responded, "She's speaking in Japanese. As a Sega character, I understood her perfectly. She was only saying that her name is Hatsune Miku, she thought it looked like you were having a lot of fun singing and dancing, so she put the track on repeat so she could join you and have fun too." He didn't translate any further however when he saw that Jake wasn't paying any attention to him; he was just strutting around all the more with his dance moves, trying to impress the girl. He soon realized he couldn't translate further anyway since she was now singing along in Korean, and he didn't have that language pack installed since his game was part of a North American distribution.

Still a bit annoyed that Jake was getting all the attention, Sonic perked up when he realized that Hatsune Miku brought more Vocaloid friends with her. They were just now joining the impromptu flash mob and the only problem that remained lied in selecting which lovely lady he'd vie for.

* * *

"Look, over there, Frodo!" Sam cried, pointing to a large crowd of people gathered in the food court. When they finally fought their way through the crowd of big people, they observed a handful of dancers; one of which was a blue hedgehog.

"Are you sure it's the right one this time, Sam?" Frodo asked. They had already apprehended five 'Sonic's, none of which remembered seeing them before and denied any purchase of a ring; though they happily produced their own collections of rings they'd earned, which were nothing like The One.

"I'm sure of it! That tanned elf is up there with him; he's got to be the one!"

"But that tanned elf isn't wearing a tunic like the one we ran into was." Frodo pointed out, still a little unsure, and thinking that the fewer 'Sonic's that knew about their business, the better.

"So maybe he took it off for some reason. Let's just go ask him!" But before Sam could take a step further, the outer wall of the food court collapsed.

"They're here..." Frodo declared in an effectively ominous tone, even if the declaration was simply stating the obvious.

When the dust cleared, two Ringwraiths became visible, sending all the occupants of the food court into a panic.

* * *

"What was that!?" Felix exclaimed when a loud noise sounded and the building vibrated a little. Calhoun had leapt to her feet millisecond before he had, her military reflexes kicking in.

A moment later, one of the airport security personnel burst into the room and commanded them to follow him. "We can't release you yet 'cause we're not done with your paperwork, but we need all hands on deck to address this sudden security breach." was the reason he gave for the sudden babysitting on the move gig.

When they arrived on the scene, they observed the security staff trying to fend back two men - or at least that's what Calhoun assumed they were, though they seemed to have supernatural abilities - clothed in all black who seemed to infuse the very essence of fear into the air. Speaking of which, she saw two children cowering beneath a table just within the battle zone, although everyone else besides the security personnel had fled the area.

Rushing to their side, she addressed them, "What are you kids doing here! You could be killed!" When they turned to look at her, she was surprised to find that they didn't look young enough to be children, even though their stature suggested they couldn't be more than seven years old.

"We're not children, we're hobbits!" Sam protested.

"Doesn't matter WHAT you are, you need to get out of here!"

"We can't." Frodo explained, "Those Ringwraiths are after something that belongs to us, but it was taken by one named 'Sonic'. Will you help us? We're all in grave danger until we get the artifact away from here."

"Come with me." Calhoun commanded, taking them to her 'babysitter'. "Tell him what you told me." They obliged.

"We can't leave our posts! It's taking all our power to keep them at bay, and they're still gaining ground!" the officer exclaimed.

"Well it looks to me that you're all doomed unless you outsource to a qualified escort for these two..." Calhoun interjected, coughing suggestively to indicate her own qualifications.

Catching the hint, the officer commanded, "Fine. YOU take them!"

Not budging, Calhoun simply protested, "But how can I escort them effectively without a weapon?"

"Fine! Take one of the reserves!"

"Oh no, I wouldn't DARE after the penalties I received the last time I wielded a firearm here..."

"Augh! Okay, okay! I'll grant you amnesty for today's charges! Now will you please just go!" he pleaded, getting desperate as the Ringwraiths gained a few feet.

Picking him up by the collar, Calhoun ordered, "You'll grant me full amnesty AND lifetime right to carry on this airline."

Hesitating, the officer didn't respond until one of the Ringwraiths made an unearthly snarl that chilled him to the bone. "Alright! Alright! Done! Now will you PLEASE help us!?" The poor guard seemed close to tears at this point.

Satisfied with her bargain, Calhoun stated, "Alright, hobbits, let's MOVE OUT! We've got a hedgehog to find..." And with that, the party consisting of herself, her husband, and the two hobbits left the very peculiar battle scene, where the very unfitting soundtrack of "Gangnam Style" persisted among the din of gunfire and RingWraith screams.

* * *

"Don't worry, Miku, I'll protect you!" Jake proclaimed, trying to sound macho even though he didn't understand the full extent of the danger they were all in. "Oh, and you too, ol' buddy!" The last part was added when Jake saw how pale Sonic looked. He was fidgeting with something in his pocket, and seemed like he was at war with himself, his face contorting into different expressions of terror and longing.

"Oh hey, look! It's Calhoun and Felix!" Jake exclaimed, flagging them down as he saw them approach. "And those kids from the store earlier!" Sonic visibly flinched at that knowledge, as if something within him detested the sight of them, though Jake couldn't figure out why Sonic would be so opposed to kids he barely knew.

"Alright, Sonic, hand it over." Calhoun demanded when she reached them.

With an urgency that surprised all of them, save perhaps the hobbits present, Sonic protested, "No! It's mine! It's my anniversary present! My preciousss!"

Quickly recovering from her astonishment, Calhoun stated, "I don't have time for this." and swiftly sucker-punched him and slapped the ring out of his hand, which he had been in the process of removing from his pocket for the purpose of wearing it once more.

Frodo instantly snatched it up after it fell to the ground, and started running as Calhoun ordered him to. She was using all her might to detain the squirming hedgehog who was fighting desperately to get at the hobbits and retrieve his 'precious'.

"Quick! Use the return home charm, Frodo!" Sam cried.

"But that will put us miles and miles behind at that milestone!" Frodo argued.

"We don't have a choice!" Sam reasoned. Within seconds, the two had disappeared, and not a moment too soon, for Sonic had just escaped Calhoun's grasp, and the Ringwraiths had broken through the security guard's defenses. Luckily, it seemed like they weren't interested in sticking around after they saw the hobbits 'return home' to their 'milestone', and soon followed suit, leaving the airport a much happier - though rather damaged - place.

The results were nearly instantaneous. Sonic returned to his senses, the sense of fear and dread left the minds of all present, though Calhoun didn't feel like sticking around long enough to risk the security officers' change of mind on her amnesty. "Alright guys, let's find Ralph and Kitty and get out of here!" Felix and Sonic heartily agreed, but Jake didn't seem to want to leave without Miku.

"Aw, come on! Can't we take her with us!?" Jake pleaded.

"Negatory. Little Miss Japan needs to return to her own game."

"But! She's got BLUE. HAIR. How awesome is that!? It's as if she spun it from the wisps upon the sea... t'cha."

"You keep sweet talking like that and I'm sure you'll find another sweetheart soon enough, lover boy."

Miku suddenly left when she saw her vocaloid friends. "Sayonara!" she called.

"See!? I'm pretty sure that means she loves me and will wait for me to come find her!" Jake reasoned.

"Actually, she just said 'goodbye'. That's not even a 'see you later'." Sonic corrected, "You just got dumped, bro!"

The crew set off to find Ralph and Kitty in much higher spirits than they had been minutes ago, with of course the exception of Jake, dejected as he was over his rejection.

* * *

_True Word Count for Of Babes and Babies: 4,706_  
_True Word Count for story thus far: 33,650  
_

* * *

**A/N #1:** I apologize for how incredibly late this is! (and also for any mistakes in the chapter... I kinda rushed to finish it up so I could get SOMETHING out to ya'll) I won't make a bunch of excuses, but I feel like I do owe you at least one good reason for my tardiness. I've had a rough few weeks for a number of reasons, the most notable one probably being that I was in a car accident. I'm doing well (for anyone that may care to know), but my car wasn't quite so fortunate; and my life has become that much crazier with all the legalities and arrangements that need to be made following a car wreck. Guess I should've taken driving lessons from Vanellope, right?

**A/N #2:** I made some changes to the layout of the chapters and wrote up a more thorough introduction to the story in the prologue to address a lot of the feedback I've gotten so far on the story. It would mean a lot to me if those of you who have been reading and/or leaving feedback to check it out and let me know if it addresses the peculiarities of this story well, and/or any changes you think would be suitable.

* * *

**Q&A!**

_**Q:** Why do you choose to put the true word count for the story?_  
**A:** Because the word counts generated by FanFiction reflect the total including all the things written in things like author's notes, Q&A, and Review Responses, rather than just the words that make up the story. It's more for my sake than all of yours, so I can make sure I don't make the chapters too long or too short, and to keep track of my writing stats.

* * *

**Review Responses**

**Becky Blue Eyes** - As you wished, this was the Sonic and Jake bonus chapter! :D I really hope my state of exhaustion did not ruin the chapter... I'll probably come back and read it when I'm more cognizant and think to myself, "What the heck was I thinking?" And sorry to keep you waiting on the main storyline so long, even though I am quite happy to hear you've become invested in Candle and Muffin's part in the cannon! I've had a ton of fun with those two...

**Dixie Darlin** - Exactly! I loved that part in the movie where Taffyta's mascara runs... hence why I've been trying to sneak a couple Taffyta freak out scenes in... xD I'm so cruel... Yeah, I hope a lot of the references here aren't too outdated... especially since this is all -technically- set in 2017... but I can't predict memes and games that far in the future, so this will have to do for now... x_X maybe the airline they're on just offers a lot of discounts to senior game characters... _

**Shippings** - Oooo you're playing the game well! Keep up the predictions! :D

**CraftyKeronian** - Thanks! Yeah, technically, I guess Muffin should be ethereal like Kitty and Surge are, but I kind of went on the assumption that since he's the embodiment of the processor chip's memory management, he could make an avatar for himself out of spare character code... Same for all the 'doctors', since every game needs a processor, haha.

**dogbertcarroll** - I've actually never seen Roger Rabbit... .

**JustSomeAverageGuy** - Thanks for you feedback! Please see Author's Note #2, your review was the grain that tipped the scale and prompted me to make those changes. :) I also tried to fixed as many punctuation errors as I could find throughout the chapters, but I'm sure I missed a few...


	13. Departures

**Phase I, Level 9: Departures**

Awaking suddenly and in searing pain, the doctor clenched his hand over his heart in an effort to steady the glitching code. When had he fallen asleep? No, it wasn't sleep... it was a blackout. He was nearly out of time. Glancing about himself to get his bearings and recall where he was he noticed he was still in the the safe little nook of the motherboard, sheltered from the activity around himself, and Candle was still beside him - asleep with her head on his shoulder. Ah yes, now he remembered... the last thing he recalled before blacking out was kissing her; he couldn't resist a smile of self-satisfaction at the fact.

Groaning with the effort it took, he sat himself up straight and nudged Candle with the arm that wasn't clutching his chest, so as to wake her. Stirring from her slumber with some adorable moaning sounds to accompany, the sleepy racer blinked and yawned a couple times before speaking. "Mmm, I didn't know kissing could be so TIRING!" Evidently she had taken his black out for a nap and followed in her own shortly after.

Ignoring the thought to point out that the sudden 'sleep' was probably much more likely due to their poor health than to their kiss, the doctor got straight to business and addressed the groggy girl in the most serious of tones.

"Candle, I need you to listen to me very closely and do everything I tell you to. Will you promise me that?"

Tilting her head and cocking an eyebrow in confusion, she asked, "Why?" as all young children are in the habit of doing.

"There's no time to explain! Will you please just promise me?" There was a sense of urgency in his request that prompted the girl to nod her head in agreement and furrow her brow in apprehension.

"The good news is that the exit is only just up ahead!" He began, pointing to the exit that was in view from their hideout, but still probably a ten minute walk away. "The bad news is that I won't be able to escort you there."

Before he could get another word out, Candle barraged him with more questions. "What! Why? Are you hurt! Do you need help? I can go get someone right away!"

"Shhh, Candle, calm down, it'll be okay; just listen to me, alright?" He coaxed, taking her hand in reassurance. "Once the lights have stopped flashing all about, you must run as fast as you can, straight to that exit, and don't stop until you're back in the game. Once you're there you can stop to catch your breath, but you must get to the Princess - I mean, Vanellope - and tell her what I'm about to tell you. Got that so far?"

She nodded that she had, but the look on her face told him that she was a little preoccupied with her concern for himself. Which, while touching, wasn't going to help the game any. Forcing himself to look more composed, he swallowed his pain and tried his best to continue his instructions without gasping for breath every other word.

"You must tell Vanellope that the game is being reprogrammed, and the process is still in the gathering data stage. She must instruct everyone to fix any damages they can find with themselves or in the world of Sugar Rush, so that the programmers will be more likely to keep it around during the re-write phase. Anything that's broken or disabled now will most likely not make it into the new version. That is why it is IMPERATIVE - " At this, he cupped her face with both his hands so she was forced to look directly into his eyes - which she had been avoiding as her eyes had been darting every which direction in her state of worry. " - that you get back to Sugar Rush and cross the finish line on the next race so that your code is reset. Promise me you'll do that!"

Tearing up by this point, Candle responded, "But what about you? Won't you be there at the next race to remind me?"

Biting his lip as he contemplated how best to put it, he finally decided that there was no good way to do so and he should just be blunt. "No... I won't be coming back."

"Wh-why not?" she stammered, starting to lose composure.

"I no longer have my avatar code, and with the unstable state that Sugar Rush is in, I will be unable to regenerate one."

"So after the reprogramming is done, I'll see you again?" Candlehead asked hopefully, daring to smile at the prospect.

The doctor hesitated at this. In all likelihood, with a software upgrade at this stage in their life - after twenty years of existence - hardware updates wouldn't only be plausible - they'd be necessary. The chances of their using the same chip was essentially nil; his days as the doctor of Sugar Rush would be over in a matter of minutes. Unable to bring himself to say this, however, he muttered a rather quiet "maybe..."

Perhaps nobody gave this girl enough credit; for she picked up on his fib in a heartbeat. "You're lying!" She exclaimed, then burst into tears.

Unable to bear the sight of her crying, Muffin Man embraced her in a tight bear hug - ignoring the thrashing pain it caused him to do so.

"Listen to me, Candle... I gave you most of my code when you were injured. So as long as you're around, I'll still be with you... so please, promise me you'll cross the finish line... for BOTH our sakes, hm?" As he finished his plea, he held her out at arms length so she could see his begging puppy-dog face. In a game like Sugar Rush, EVERY avatar needed one of those; and they were very seldom ineffective.

Red-eyed and runny-nosed, Candle whimpered as she nodded her agreement to the promise.

"There. That's a good girl!" He praised, smiling in reassurance before his face contorted in another wave of pain. "One last thing..." he said, placing a hand to her belly, where it began to glow blue.

"W-what are you d-doing?" She inquired nervously.

"Apologize to Miss Vanellope for me... I will not be able to return her glitch to her. As it would be a waste to lose this revolutionary piece of code, I am now giving it to you."

"W-wait! Don't go!" She pleaded, but her cries were muffled as he pressed his face up against hers and kissed her one last time. By the time she'd finished the last syllable, he was gone; simply faded into nothingness.

* * *

"Oi! What took ya so long!?" Kitty hailed as the Fix-Its, Jake, and Sonic appeared in the terminal waiting area.

"Long story." Sonic replied, surprisingly un-energetic. Jake mumbled a half-hearted "T'cha." in agreement.

"What the heck happened to you fellahs!? First international airport experience whooped ya good, seems!" She laughed in an understanding manner, as if all her international trips were just as eventful.

"Man... Love bites." Jake muttered.

"Wha-at?" Ralph teased in an unbelieving tone, "Thought you could have any blond you wanted!?"

"Yeah, that's just it... she wasn't. Apparently the dudettes with blue hair are immune to my irresistible charms! Total bummer, dude... it was gorgeous! Like the sea on a magical sunrise..."

"Uhh..." Ralph responded, speechless. He'd never seen Jake so dejected before.

"All passengers for flight #1337 should now board." An announcement sounded over the loudspeaker.

"Oh! That's us!" Felix informed with a bounce, oddly the most energetic of the crew. Ralph eyed his friend suspiciously. Despite his usual upbeat countenance, something was abnormally cheerful in his manner; you'd think getting interrogated alongside your wife for an illegal firearms transportation was the most exciting feeling in the world with an expression like that. Something had to be up. "What are you so happy about?" Ralph asked with a knowing grin.

With a sudden force of urgency that almost made Ralph wet himself, Calhoun interrupted, "RALPH! What about my guns!? Where are they!?" Felix looked a little disheartened at his wife's deliberate interruption.

"Oh don't worry, sergeant, I've got your 'babies' safely packed away in the plane." Ralph assured.

"BABIES!? Who said anything about babies!?" The girl looked like a deer in the headlights at this point, which Felix seemed to notice. He simply cleared his throat before saying, "How about we all just get on the plane like the announcer said?"

The others in their party heartily agreed and made a beeline for the boarding line, leaving behind the rather confused party of Ralph and Kitty.

* * *

After a few rounds of relishing the thrill of racing again, Vanellope began to put more effort in observing her players rather than racing, which resulted in a quite a few wipe outs, but since wasn't being controlled by the player, that wasn't such a big deal. It was the same three she had seen the first day Sugar Rush had been plugged in at their new location - wherever the heck that was.

The primary player was of typical gamer appearance - male, lanky, bespectacled, and pale as a ghost from lack of exposure to the sun. Sometimes the other male would sit at the second set of controls and play as well, though he was significantly more dark-skinned and had a rather thick accent that made him hard to understand. From the words she -did- gather, he was the money bags behind their purchase of the Sugar Rush cabinet, and often reminded the others of that when they teased him with a long spiel of how his father was a 'Maharaja' or something or other like that. The last was the only female of the party, and she was the only one whose nationality Vanellope could immediately place. The girl was Japanese - she could feel it in her code. She was nearly constantly scribbling on her notepad - pictures of some sort that she would show the other other two occasionally. Sometimes the dark one with the funny accent - by this point, she was starting to think this 'India' of which he often spoke was his hometown, so she figured she'd call him 'the Indian' from now on - would also scribble on a notepad, but he wasn't drawing pictures like the girl was; he was writing things that looked vaguely similar to words, but were completely unreadable. No, it wasn't because she'd never learned to READ. She was programmed to be able to read in both Japanese AND English, thank you very much! She could pick out an English word every now and then, but even though the letters were all from the English language, there was apparently no rhyme or reason to it.

_'Great... we've been picked up by a ragtag team of weirdos...'_ she reasoned to herself, snapping back to attention when she was nearly crushed by a falling gumball. Aside from general observations about the game, Vanellope hadn't heard any other sort of useful tidbits, so she returned her attention to racing until the trio had their fill of gaming.

* * *

The crew was in a relatively chipper mood as they all headed back to the castle after a long day's racing. It had felt so good to be behind the wheel all day like old times had been at Litwak's, they momentarily forgot their distresses of game damage and missing characters.

It was all returned to the forefront of their minds all too soon when a police truck sped up behind them and lurched to a stop as it reached Vanellope. "President! We found Candlehead!"

"You did!?" Vanellope and Taffyta exclaimed in unison, "Where!?"

"No time for that!" The cop exclaimed, "She's in hysterics and won't listen to any of us; she demands an audience with you, President Vanellope."

"What about me?" Taffyta asked, momentarily hurt that Candle wanted to see Vanellope before her. She went unheard, however, and Vanellope simply made orders to have the best guest bedroom prepared, a feast fixed, and Candle brought to the tea room.

* * *

Vanellope had thought bringing the traumatized girl to the cozier tea room as opposed to the opulent throne room would have helped to calm her down, but it was still quite a long time before the girl was able to talk, let alone recognizably, so great were her sobs and lamentations.

When the mint-haired racer had finally managed to mitigate her misery and start speaking coherently, she related the conclusions of the Muffin Man, and his instructions on how to prepare. The president was quite glad to have this information, and was beginning to think Candlehead finally calm enough to eat some much needed food and go to bed, but that notion went right out the window when she asked the question: "So where is Muffin Man now? Didn't he come back with you?"

Poor thing - she was already malnourished enough from her two-day stint in the motherboard, and she was sobbing buckets by the minute, spending all her moisture on tears. With the state she was in, Vanellope would be getting no more information on Muffin Man, so she quietly exited the room and sent Taffyta - who had been waiting outside impatiently - in to comfort the grieving girl.

Summoning the closest palace servant, Vanellope sent orders to have the others feast in the dining hall - there's no way Candlehead and Taffyta would have the appetite for a feast anyway - and to have a plate of cookies and milk sent to the tea room for the two girls instead. Perhaps that wasn't the best thing to ask of this particular servant, as he happened to be one of the Oreo cookie guards obsessed with chanting his brand name at the front door. Ah well.

Spotting Sour Bill, Vanellope called out, "Sour Bill! I need your help! There's a lot to be done!"

"Yes, President?"

"I need every bit of documentation you have on Sugar Rush. We need to make sure everything's in order in the coming days! Bring it to my study, and get plenty of refreshments and pillows. Get any volunteers among the racers and personnel to come help go over the documentation."

Sour Bill simply nodded and turned to go do as she asked, but then she called out, "Wait! One more thing! Have my royal bed chambers prepared for two guests... Goodness knows Taffyta and Candlehead will need a good night's sleep more than the rest of us, and with the documentation to go through, I won't be sleeping at all tonight."

* * *

_True word count for Departures: 2,497_  
_True word count for story thus far: 36,147_

* * *

**A/N**: I didn't originally intend for it to be this way, but I feel like this chapter was like a smack in the face of depression right after a giddy high of the bonus chapter last week... I blame it on the fact that I wrote that _Rise of the Guardians_ one-shot over the weekend. Hey, if ya'll are ROTG fans and feel so inclined, you should check it out! It's my first hurt/comfort piece so I'm interested in feedback! It's:

"December Twenty-Fifth"

Yeah, yeah, I know, shameless self-advertising... so shoot me.  
*Ka-CHACK!* That can be arranged...  
EEP! I didn't mean it, Calhoun! Please don't shoot!

* * *

**Q&A!**

_**Q:** frodo and sam! wtf are they doing there!?_  
**A:** Well, since the airplanes/airports basically represent the internet, why not? They're in LOTRO... xD Notice the subtle game references to the 'return home' ability and 'milestone' artifact...

_**Q:** Only things I would change is that you're giving too much limited information. As much as I like how little that you're revealing, there seems like there's a bit too much to be answered, meaning that this story, if in the end everything was clear, would probably be at the length of around 20-25 chapters or even more_  
**A:** Yeah, so I know that wasn't phrased as a _question_, but I wanted to address all the readers with the answer on the story format... As I've strived to make it a lot clearer now, this story is meant to read more like a game... a roleplaying game in particular, where the plotlines there are notorious for being quite intricate and vague, revealing only little snippets at each level, with the majority of game play still being focused on the action. Now, I've tried to alleviate some of that by putting a lot of the action that isn't pertinent to the overall plot in these 'bonus levels', so that if your only concern is the plot, you can skip those chapters and greatly reduce the amount of reading you have to do. If you'll notice, we're only 9 chapters into the plot... the rest has been bonus, so how long you make the game is up to you - you can play the bonus levels or you can stick to the main story arc without bothering with the bonuses. And don't forget! Part of the gameplay is giving you time to figure out the clues so far and put together the pieces! Quite a few pieces were explained in this chapter, with breadcrumbs of information pointing to future revelations in later chapters. The reason for the limited information is that I'm not ready to tell ya'll yet... but no worries, it'l all be explained in time... and if by chance you do find plotholes, do let me know, as they won't be left as holes intentionally. (In the event those are pointed out, I will go back and edit, and post an alert in the next chapter indicating thus) And that inivitation applies for all my writing, not just this story... it's just that this story is revealing less than usual per chapter due to the roleplay game set up...

_**Q:** why not try adding more Bonus chapters? :))_  
**A:** Hmm.. there's already a ratio of roughly 1 bonus chapter for every 3 cannon chapters, if I add anymore, the story may never get finished! xD Moving forward, I expect to spend a little more time on the cannon since things are beginnging to be set in motion for the wrapping up of part 1 and the commencement of part 2... but the great part about bonus levels is that I can keep adding as many as are wanted at the end of the game :D

* * *

**Review Responses**

_Becky Blue Eyes_ - Yeah, I've been trying to use the separator to separate on more than just scene changes now - though I haven't gone back and made those changes to previous chapters... But yeah, trying to use them more to indicate passage of time as well, or major POV changes... though I still can't bring myself to use them EVERY time those things happen, or else there'd be SO many bars... xD

_JustSomeAverageGuy_ - Haha, I considered putting more Ringwraith action in... but the chapter was so long already... and weren't you the one complaining about length just a minute ago? ;)

_**Everyone**_ - REALLY glad ya'll enjoyed the bonus chapter! I was looking forward to writing it for the longest time! ...and I may or may not have dragged Sonic into this whole story just so I could write crack with The One Ring and him...


	14. The Flight

**Phase I, Level 10: The Flight**

_**Part 1**_

"Shh, calm down, Candle… Why don't you start from the beginning?" Vanellope coaxed the stammering green-eyed racer.

"B-but Mu-Muffin Man said I h-have to cross the f-finish line!"

"I can't let you drive a kart in your current condition; you'll get in a wreck and you said so yourself that Muffin diagnosed your code as unstable! You might not reset after a kart crash! So first just calm down, we'll talk this over, then we'll have a roster race the moment you're feeling better." Candle seemed to agree with this proposal and began to recount her adventure with the Muffin Man in the motherboard. It was difficult for the poor girl to stay focused, shaken as she was. Vanellope hated having to press the girl so much for information crucial to their game's survival while she was so deeply traumatized. There was some truth to what King Candy – that is, Turbo – had said, "The hardest part about being [royalty] is always doing the right thing – no matter what."

Those words echoed through her head as Vanellope awoke from her slumber. Oh geez, as if working nearly round the clock wasn't bad enough, now she was dreaming about it while she slept too! Perhaps her mind thought she had to be reminded of yesterday's duties so she wouldn't forget the duties of the day ahead, for she had nearly forgotten about Candlehead's plea to have the roster race as soon as possible. Stretching, she found herself quite sore and had to pause for a moment to figure out why. Could have something to do with the pile of books she was sleeping on – they weren't exactly stuffed with marshmallows like the pillows she was used to having. Glancing about she discovered that she was still in the royal study – apparently she had dozed off while going over the game's blue prints. Man, this whole running a game thing was tough work! For the first time in a long time, she allowed her thoughts to return to Ralph, and how he might be doing these days. Had he always been this tired and constantly plagued by thoughts of his job too? She hardly had any time to hang out with Juby anymore, and when she did interact with any of her friends, it was always as their leader and not as their colleague. Quite frankly, it sucked. No doubt about it, she owed Ralph a GINORMOUS apology next time she saw him… IF she ever saw him again…

"Hey… you okay?" Jubileena's voice broke into Vanellope's thoughts.

"Huh?" was all she could say in reply, still groggy and disoriented.

"You started crying, just now…" her red-headed friend pointed out, voice laced with concern.

"Oh… I did?" She hadn't realized it, but when she touched her cheek instinctively, she found Jubileena's accusation to be true – fresh hot tears were moistening her skin.

Disregarding the president's rhetorical question, Juby scooted over to her side so they were shoulder to shoulder.

"Just so's you know, my friend, you've been doing a wonderful job. No one else here could have kept it together like you have, and you've matured so much in this short amount of time to rise to the occasion. We couldn't ask for a better leader – or a better friend who truly cares for us all. So, don't beat yourself up or anything, ok?"

Vanellope smiled at her friend's encouragement, even though her assumptions had been slightly misplaced. Before she could make any sort of reply, however, their little Kodak moment was disrupted when Wynnchel and Duncan burst into the study and cried, "Urgent report from the player patrol, President!"

Vanellope was on her feet in a matter of milliseconds. After her slight reconnaissance during their racing yesterday, she had thought it would be more productive to assign some of the NPCs – the donut cops in particular – to hide out just off camera and observe the players whenever they were around. However she had no idea they'd have something to report so soon – let alone something urgent. "Well hurry up and tell me, sprinkle-heads!" she cried in frustration when they waited for her command to continue.

"They report that the players are talking of unplugging the game – and that 'the tools' are almost here!" She had to admire their composure, to have been able to calmly stand at attention and wait for her command just now, with news like that!

"WHAT!?" cried Vanellope, Juby, and a couple other racers and citizens who had also fallen asleep while going through the blueprints – everyone now felt VERY awake.

"Awaiting your orders, President." Wyynchel stated.

"Uh… first off, nobody panic! We've got some time since the scout found out ahead of time. Organize all your patrol forces to split up and head out in all directions informing people – and desserts alike – to make their way to the exit and out of the game. Tell them not to go far though, we'll regroup just outside the game once everyone's out." Nodding their understanding, the pair left and immediately set off to do so, and those in the study also got up to do the same.

As they were leaving the study, however, Vanellope stopped dead in her tracks, making Juby, who had been following at her heels – smack into her. "What is it?" she asked as she rubbed her pained nose.

"Candlehead…" Vanellope began as the color drained from her face, "She hasn't crossed the finish line!"

* * *

"Wake up, Ralph. We're about to land!" Felix called, nudging his friend with his elbow. Snorting mid-snore, Ralph snapped his eyes open and sat bolt upright. "I'm up! I'm gonna wreck it!" he exclaimed in startled stupor.

"No, don't!" Felix cried, but it was too late. His clumsy friend had wrecked the floor of the plane, causing the once-straight airplane to look more like one of the U-bends Mario so often worked with – and then the plane went down.

"Ralph! I'm gonna kill you!" kitty hollered over the din of the panicked inhabitants of the aircraft as she elbowed her way to the cockpit, no doubt to hijack the controls and fix their flight path – in true alignment with her motto of "If you wan' somethin' done right; Kitty's gotta do it."

"Whooooooo! Hang 10 with me, Sonic! YEAH!" Jake yelled as he held his hands up in ecstasy, like he was on a freakin' roller coaster or something. Sonic, however, looked a few shades bluer than usual as he mumbled something along the lines of only liking to go this fast when he was the one doing the moving.

Calhoun was frozen stiff with the realization that no amount of firepower was going to help them out of this mess, and didn't seem to notice when Felix took her hand as he braced himself for a crash landing.

Ralph's first reaction was to get defensive as he usually did over his clumsiness, but when the reality hit that they could all actually die here, right now, his heart sank. No, this wasn't right – it couldn't end like this, he still had to find Vanellope! He couldn't bear to lose his friends like this. He didn't want to be responsible for the loss of such lives he held so dear – including the lives of Kitty and Jake even!

As the plane continued to careen towards the ground, Ralph took out his peppermint poppy and held onto it for dear life, praying that the magic he felt it had could somehow save them all. The ground looked so close – why had he chosen a window seat? Images of Vanellope flashed across his mind as he closed his eyes and prepared for what might be his last moments of life. _'I'll miss you, kid…'_

* * *

"Taffyta! Where's Candlehead!?" Vanellope asked with all due urgency when she entered the bedroom and saw only the addressed present.

By the time she was awake enough to comprehend Vanellope's request, she was only able to gasp her surprise when she saw that Candlehead's pillow was bare. "She must have snuck off somewhere during the night. What's wrong?"

"No, no, no, this is terrible!" the president exclaimed as she pulled at her hair in anxiety. "We're about to be unplugged, but Candlehead can't leave the game until she crosses the finish line to reset her code!"

"We have to find her!" cried Taffyta, hopping out of bed in a jiffy.

"Ooohhhh I don't know if that will be enough, and we're running out of time!" Vanellope stressed, on the verge of a mental breakdown concerning her imminent failure to protect the characters of her game.

"Well don't just STAND there, Vanellope! Explain on the go!" This time it was Taffyta dragging Vanellope through the halls of the castle. "I think I may have an idea of where Candle went; we should check the Muffin Man's place."

"We need at least nine other racers in addition to Candlehead!" she explained as Taffyta led the way, "The finish line only ever generates when we're in the final third of a race, and we need at least ten racers registered to get the system to start a roster race! And with the game being unplugged, I can't ask my racers to race the clock to compete in a roster race, but I can't just abandon Candlehead here; I don't know what to do!"

"Well here's one less racer you'll have to ask. I'm staying with Candle with or without a roster race to run." Taffyta proclaimed with stolid conviction.

"Me too." Came another from behind them. Glancing behind, Vanellope saw that Jubileena was now following them towards the kart garage. Vanellope smiled and took Juby's hand with her free one and they closed the gap between them and the garage in a chain of three.

"You girls scared you'll get separated?" Swizzle teased when he saw them enter in such a state.

"Didn't you hear? The game's gonna be unplugged!" Jubileena explained.

"I know. That's why I'm here to get my baby. No way I'm leaving her here when this place is disconnected!" At this, he lovingly patted his racing car.

Struck with a sudden idea, Vanellope suggested, "Why don't you take 'her' around for one last spin and find any racers you can? We need volunteers for one last roster race; Candlehead needs to cross the finish line or she won't be able to leave the game since her code's all broken right now."

"Oh no! Well I'll be one of your volunteers, and I'll round up a few others before you can say 'Swizzle fo' shizzle'!" he challenged, then was off in his racing cart.

The three girls hopped in their respective karts and made a beeline for the Muffin Man's residence.

* * *

Ralph was jarred from his pre-death reflections when he heard Kitty's voice call out over the plane's loudspeaker, "Alright ya'll! Any characters with wings head to the back and use the emergency exit."

'_Oh great, they get to save themselves… what about the rest of us?'_ Ralph thought bitterly.

"I need ya'll to get behind the plane and push it towards 'at lake at 2 O'clock." She continued, "I can glide it into the water if ya'll can get me over there in the next twenty seconds; go! Not you, Tinkerbell, I need you to fly over top and give it all the pixie dust you got to buy us time!"

Before Ralph had a chance to wonder how the heck Kitty knew there was a Tinkerbell on the flight – or any other characters with wings for that matter – she gave one last instruction, "Now the rest o' ya'll need ta think happy thoughts or Tink's fairy dust isn't gonna do a lick of good!"

"How the heck are we supposed to think HAPPY thoughts at a time like THIS!?" Calhoun exclaimed.

"Easy!" Felix replied with his usual happy-go-lucky optimism. "Just think; after we make it through this, we could be PARENTS!"

"Not helping, honey…"

"Wooooo! Most radical ride, EVAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!" Jake continued to scream, completely unaware of the real danger they were all in. He was equally unaware that he was probably the one most contributing to enabling Tinkerbell's pixie dust to work, so great was his joy.

"If we make it through this, I'm gonna punch that punk." Ralph mused to himself. Sure, it was a bit mean, but it was still a thought that made him happy.

"Now that's more like it." Calhoun agreed, unable to resist a smile at the thought.

"Brace yourselves, ya'll! We're coming in for a bumpy landing!" Kitty's voice called once more over the speaker.

* * *

Candlehead sniffed as more tears threatened to fall and moisten the glimmering spoon she held in her hands. She was sitting alone in the dark, on a wooden kitchen stool in the abandoned hut previously belonging to the Muffin Man. The place still smelled like freshly baked pastries, deceptively warm and inviting, as though he would pop out from the shadows at any second and say, "Just kidding! Who wants pie?" Or something like that.

She jumped when her mourning was interrupted by the door bursting open when Taffyta, Vanellope, and Jubileena rushed in. They weren't making a lot of sense as they all spoke at once in excited tones. Her confusion must have been evident, for Vanellope soon ordered the others to be quiet and related the latest events herself.

Candlehead hesitated before going off with them, thinking for a fleeting moment that she might like to just stay behind with the game. At least that way, she could still be with Muffin Man, and the others wouldn't have to risk themselves in a roster race for her. The moment she thought that, the spoon she held suddenly felt very warm, and it felt as though his hands were holding hers. Maybe that was his way of encouraging her to keep her promise to him and continue on. Gripping the spoon even tighter as her resolve strengthened, she stood up and followed her frantic companions outside.

* * *

It was a good thing they had only been on a regional flight, for if the plane had been like one of those huge international ones; there's no way they would have survived the crash. Kitty's quick thinking and the cooperation of everyone present had saved them all. Once everyone had reached the shore, Calhoun, Felix, and Ralph settled themselves while they dried off and waited for the others. Sonic and Jake had joined the effort to retrieve the luggage from the wreckage, and honestly, they made a good team between Jake's water skills and Sonic's speed. Ralph speculated they'd be on their way within the half hour at the rate they were going.

"I tell you what, brother, I'm NEVER letting them put my hammer in the cargo section ever again, no matter WHAT the rules say about character tools being prohibited from carry ons!" Felix exclaimed, "We could've been spared a whole lot of trouble if I'd just had access to my old man's hammer!"

"At least your hammer will still be fine after sustaining water damage…" Calhoun commented, lamenting the state of her precious – now water-logged – firearms.

"Oh hey, here comes Kitty!" Ralph interrupted their lovers' quarrel. Standing up to greet her, Ralph smiled sheepishly and addressed the mail carrier-turned-hero, "Hey, Kitty, I uh… just wanted to apologize for my attitude towards you… I was completely wrong… and uh, thank you… I guess… thanks for saving our behinds just now."

"Well THANK YOU, Ralph, you're too sweet." Kitty responded, slightly aghast at his sudden confession. Not too shaken from her mission, however, Kitty continued with her original train of thought and stated, "I just came by ta tell ya'll that once things are wrapped up here, we just need to hop on a few trains and we'll be there!"

"REALLY!?" Ralph exclaimed, beaming with excitement.

"Yeah, the IP address is in an apartment complex of some sort; which is all on the same power source – so it's the same airport – so we just need to get to the right outlet!"

* * *

"Really? ALL of you…?" Candlehead whispered in surprise, too touched to get anymore volume out of her voice. There in front of her stood Taffyta, Vanellope, Jubileena, Swizzle, Minty, Crumbelina, Rancis, Snowanna, Adorabeezle, and Gloyd… Every single one of Sugar Rush's current racers had volunteered to be in her roster race. It was amazing how loyal one's friends could be after going through a hardship – or two, or three – together.

"You bet!" Taffyta replied with a smile, "Now let's race!" With the rest of Sugar Rush successfully evacuated and no telling when their owners would be back to unplug them, no one was hesitant to follow Taffyta's command. With all eleven karts lined up, the racers hopped into theirs, started up the engines, and braced themselves for the countdown.

Three…. Two… ONE!

* * *

_True word count for The Flight: 2,817_  
_True word count for story thus far: 38,934_

* * *

**_Congratulations, Player 1, you've unlocked bonus content!_**

Fanart of Muffin Man and Candle is on DeviantArt for anyone who wishes to view! To access, construct the following link:

digipukamon DOT deviantart DOT com FORWARDSLASH art FORWARDSLASH Candied-Hearts-367075512

If that doesn't work for you, just do the first part of the link up through the 'com' portion and browse my gallery for the deviation titled "Candied Hearts".

Note: Some players got a sneak peak at this, if they left a review lamenting The Muffin Man's death. So sorry guys, it's the same one you already saw…


	15. The Flight Part 2

**Congratulations, all players, you have unlocked bonus content!**

**DISCONNECTION HAS BREACHED 10,000 VIEWS!**

Wow, I'm so honored to have you all as my audience for this story; I never could have imagined that it would be embraced by all of you! I'm truly touched, thank you SO MUCH for your support! As a token of my appreciation, I had Jake whip up a little something for ya'll... It's posted on Deviantart, and the URL can be constructed as follows:

**digipukamon DOT deviantart DOT com FORWARD-SLASH art FORWARD-SLASH Thank-You-Readers-369952325**

* * *

**Phase I, Level 10: The Flight**

_**Part 2**_

Three… Two… One… GO!

Off they dashed on the race of their lives, racing the clock more than each other. For once they didn't use their sweet seekers or cherry bombs, 'cause this race wasn't about beating each other, it was about helping one another and getting out alive. With hearts pounding and adrenaline coursing through their veins, they all kept pace as they made it through the gumball alleyway and the tiered tower of cake. Soon they were making their way through the frosted passes of the ice cream mountain. Morale began to soar as they began the final stretch – the rainbow road! – and knew that the finish line was built! Just a few more turns to go!

* * *

Ralph was too excited as he rode on the train to be annoyed by the shouting going on in the seat behind him. Sonic was reaming Jake out for 'not taking things seriously' when they were on the plane. Ralph supposed Sonic just couldn't help it since he was the spokesperson for safety; that he felt it was his duty to give Jake the lecture on how you don't regenerate if you die outside your game. However Jake just didn't seem to get it no matter how Sonic explained, and was too hung up on 'how rad' the experience was and how he couldn't wait for the next thrill.

Kitty had stayed behind to oversee the wreckage clean up; she was really in her element ordering them all around. Since she had just saved all their lives, not a one had dared to argue with her when she gave the orders. She had given Calhoun directions to the IP address Sugar Rush was at, and so the sergeant was now leading them through busy train stations to get there. They were now on the last train connection and Felix was sitting in the seat next to him, voicing his concerns on what they might find.

"Why do you have to be such a downer, Felix? I'm seriously excited to see Sugar Rush again, why can't you just be happy for me?" Ralph finally asked.

"I just think we all need to be prepared for the worst, Ralph… We don't know why Sugar Rush is here, or even if it's plugged in! And stop beating around the bush, Ralph, you still haven't been able to say Vanellope's name; you keep referring to her as "Sugar Rush", even though we all know you mean just her."

Felix really had a way of replacing excitement with annoyance. Just because he was right didn't give him a right to burst his bubble, right?

When the train pulled to a halt, Ralph took a deep breath to steady himself, hoping for the best but now, thanks to Felix, fearing the worst. Unfortunately that calming breath didn't effectively prepare him for the sight that greeted him on the other side of the train doors.

Hundreds of Sugar Rush characters lined the platform of the train station, and clearly not for an afternoon stroll. Pandemonium ran rampant as their panicked cries echoed through the surrounding tunnels. A few sympathetic passersby had tried to console a few of them and assess the situation, but they would not be appeased. Eyes scanning the madness, all he knew for sure was that none of the racers – who would be at least a whole head taller than the tallest candy – were present.

Ralph jumped into the madness, trying to get information – anything coherent, really – out of the startled candied citizens, but to no avail. One piece of candy after another, they were just screaming their oversized heads off. He had been trying to deal with them gracefully, but he was quickly running out of patience. Long flights, sleep deprivation, and a flipping plane crash for crying out loud were more than enough to lower his patience level for the day, and he was only able to calmly speak to a handful of the candies before his passion bubble burst.

"Will everyone just QUIET DOWN!" He roared, his hands balling into fists instinctively. That certainly stopped the noise… for a few precious seconds. He realized he wouldn't have long to talk before the sheer shock of the moment wore off and they'd be back to their frantic crying. "Will someone PLEASE tell me what's going on!? Hey, you!" He called, pointing out a particularly frightened looking gingerbread man, "You tell me why you're all out here and where the racers are."

"O-our game is about to be un-p-plugged!" he answered, fresh tears welling in the corners of his frosting eyes. Ralph blinked to let the information settle in. Although being unplugged at Litwak's has always been cause for panic and dismay, it might not be such a bad thing here. He could take Vanellope and all the others home with them and enroll them in his H.E.R.O. program. It wouldn't be hard to pull a few strings considering he knew people in high places – duh, he ran the whole shindig himself! Take that, un-pluggers of the game! Self-assured of his rescue plan, Ralph continued to prod, "So if you're all here, where's the racers?"

"Th-they're still in the game!" The words hit him like a punch in the face.

"WHAT!?" He yelled, sending the poor cookie into another bout of tears. "WHY!?" He cried, having no time for formalities and gentility.

"Th-they have to s-stay for Candlehead's roster race! Or she won't be able to leave the game!"

Ralph hardly knew what he was doing – indeed, he had dropped the poor gingerbread man without a second thought - but his body seemed to have a mind of its own, and it took him down the tunnel into Sugar Rush. He vaguely registered the sound of Felix, Calhoun, and Sonic yelling after him to stop. But he didn't care, he had to go; he had to find her.

When he reached the top of the rainbow bridge that would lead him down into the game, he nearly burst into tears of joy when he saw eleven brightly colored racers rounding the last bend of the track, headed for the finish line. In the back of his mind, he had dreaded that he might never see Vanellope again; but here she was, right before his eyes, doing what she did best! He couldn't resist taking a moment to just stand and watch her as she approached the finish line – first in line of course – ready to cheer when she reached it, like a proud parent might do at a little league game.

His moment of peaceful observance was shattered when he felt a jolt that nearly sent him to his knees. Glancing behind him, he paled when he saw the tunnel behind him start to disintegrate. The game was being unplugged right now! No! He couldn't admit that, he had to hold on to hope that Vanellope and the others could get here in time, if she zapped them all over with her glitch. If he could just grab her attention and get her to come this way… "Va-!" he tried, but it came out a strangled whisper. Come on, you can do it Ralph, just shout her name! And with all his might, he drew in the biggest breath he could muster and bellowed, "VANELLOPE!"

Next thing he knew, however, he was being yanked down the tunnel and the turquoise clad racer was shrinking, disappearing farther and farther away, until she was no longer in sight. Before he could wrap his mind around what was happening, it was all over. He was sitting on the platform among the other citizens of Sugar Rush. Calhoun and Felix were bending over him in with looks of concern, and Sonic was releasing him. Realization dawning on him, Ralph asked, "Sonic… you…? You pulled me out of the game!?"

Nodding, the hedgehog panted a bit from his excursion, "In the nick of time, too. We were nearly both goners."

Now over his shock, Ralph allowed a more powerful emotion to take over: anger. At himself, of course. If he had only been a little sooner, he could have saved her. Scratch that, if he'd paid more attention before, he could've saved them all before they'd ever left Litwak's! Of course anger, once raging, rarely likes to exert itself inward, and so instead it flared itself outwards.

"How could you!? I didn't ASK to be saved!" He yelled irrationally, telling himself he would've been able to live with himself if he had stayed beside Vanellope in the game and died with her – even though that didn't make a whole lot of sense. He didn't even remember balling up his fists, but before he knew what he was doing, he had taken a swing at Sonic. The guy was too fast, of course, but he managed to surprise the others. If the Sugar Rush citizens weren't scared of him before, they certainly were now. Felix stood aghast while Calhoun went into military mode, striking a pose that said she was ready for anything. Reactions Ralph certainly expected. What he didn't expect was –

WHAM! Jake's fist had come out of nowhere, and Ralph could tell already that it was gonna leave a mark. Who knew the guy had it in him? Sure, he never doubted he was strong enough – the guy was programmed to fight riptides and battle sea monsters for cryin' out loud – but his disposition, that fun loving, no worries kind of attitude had never prepared him for this turn of events in Jake's demeanor.

"What was that for!?" Ralph demanded, though he was pretty sure why. The two of them – Sonic and Jake – had become so buddy-buddy, Ralph was suddenly the bad guy again towards their brotherhood they conveniently left him out of. Or perhaps it was just the poetic justice of his 'happy thought' to punch Jake after the plane crash backfiring on him. He'd have to remember that thoughts made under the influence of pixie dust could be dangerous.

"Cause you could have DIED, idiot! And if you die outside your game, you don't. regenerate. dude." Beyond his surprise that Jake had paid attention to Sonic's rant on safety when he was all gung-ho about how awesome the plane crash was, he was furthermore moved by the genuine care Jake expressed. He hadn't expected that at all. He was stunned enough to be directed into a train car by Felix and Calhoun, and by this time, the shock of Vanellope's death was hitting full force as well, and he didn't try to resist.

* * *

"What should we do about them?" Felix asked, nodding his head towards the citizens of Sugar Rush who had managed to escape.

"We take them along." Calhoun replied simply.

"Really?" Felix asked, shocked, beginning to wonder if she was suddenly over-embracing the idea to adopt. Of course he'd like a few kids, but hundreds was going a bit far.

"Yeah. If nothing else, it'll help Ralph keep busy, enrolling them in H.E.R.O., and I imagine he'll have to make allies over the internet now to find placements for them all. He could kick start a revolution for abandoned games all over the networks. It would give Vanellope's death purpose and Ralph a reason to go on."

Felix hadn't thought about it like that. Boy, did his woman have vision! Maybe he'd even be able to convince her to work hosting a mid-way house into her plans. They could foster characters until they could get placed!

With bittersweet feelings of despair and hope, the whole lot of them began a long journey back to Litwak's.

* * *

Flickering on the precipice of consciousness, Vanellope heard the sound of voices – the voices of the three who had Sugar Rush in their custody. She tried to open her eyes, but it didn't make a difference, she still saw the same nothingness. Did she even have eyes? Where was she?

Rather than getting caught up in her own questions, she tried to focus on the voices, although they were fuzzy.

"- figure it out, strangest thing I've ever seen." She caught the tail end of a male's voice.

"What do you mean?" another male asked, voice heavily accented.

"It's royally screwed up for one thing. Looks like it's been hacked together; I have no idea how it ever worked! It's like there's code from TWO characters here, and this… I have no idea what to make of this last bit of code; by all accounts it shouldn't even DO anything."

"Then just scrap it entirely. Working with broken code will be more hassle than it's worth."

Vanellope grew worried that they were talking about her, that she was about to be 'scrapped'. She tried to move – to run – but found herself unable to do so, she was completely immobilized, wherever she was.

"No, you can't do that!" Another voice – female this time – broke in.

"Why not?" The two males questioned in unison.

"She's Candlehead! She was originally Minty Sakura, but was changed in the American game to Candlehead. That's probably why there's like two characters' code in there! And the game originated in Japan. Everyone will hate you if you don't include the most Japanese character in the new version!"

"Alright, alright, fine." The accented male consented, "If you're certain she's that crucial to marketing."

"I'm sure."

"That's all fine and dandy – " the other male voice, presumably the one that was invasively prodding the code right now, cut in. "But this isn't Minty Sakura's or Candlehead's code at all I'm worried about. In fact, most of her code appears to be gone and I'd have to re-code more than half her code after I split it from the rest, there's not much I can use from this copy. The other half doesn't appear to be like any of the other racers, and has a lot of permissions to access other areas of code."

The other two seemed to ponder this for a while, then the girl, who Vanellope guessed was the content expert or something, replied, "You know, there –was- that King Candy character… then he mysteriously vanished around the time Vanellope-hime reappeared. The system was messed up to begin with since it had Vanellope-hime locked for so long, it wouldn't surprise me if somehow King Candy's code got mixed up with Candlehead's somehow… so just separate the two again."

"Whatever you say…" the programmer replied in a slightly sarcastic tone that seemed to say 'easier said than done, but you're the boss.'

It was then that the weight of some of the things they said began to sink in. New version? Programmed? Character splitting? This didn't sound good, for Candlehead, or herself. What if they changed them? Wait… change them how? Who were they? She grew more frightened when she realized that her memories were slipping away from her… a moment ago a thought stood teetering on the brink of her mind that something very important had just taken place, before they'd gotten to this weird place of pseudo-existence. There was something else… a voice that had called out… a voice she felt she might care about… It had called out her name… But a moment later it was gone, and she didn't care about that voice, about the one named 'Candlehead', or anything else… she barely remembered a thing… all she knew now was that her name was Vanellope Von Schweetz, she was a racer… and she was a winner.

* * *

**_Congratulations, Player 1, You have completed Phase 1..._**

_True word count for The Flight, Part 2: **2,584**  
True word count for Phase I: **4**__1,518_  
_True word count for story thus far: __**4**__1,518_

* * *

**_Congratulations, Player 1, You have unlocked a mini-game..._**

While Phase 2 loads, entries will be accepted for Sugar Rush-esque character names. The winning entries will be used (either in whole or in part with a variation) in Phase 2! Keep in mind the following keyphrase / clue: **"Caffeine Craze"**. Have fun speculating and creating!

* * *

**A/N:** Just wanted to give a personal word of thanks for all your wonderful support! You've all made the writing of phase 1 such a pleasure, and I can't wait to get started on phase 2! On that note, expect a bit of a hiatus as I get things prepared for phase 2, there are still several things about it I haven't got sorted out in my head just yet... Thanks for your patience!

* * *

**Review Responses**

_Becky Blue Eyes:_ Hahaha, Ralph as an airport terrorist; I love it! This may require a spin-off of one-shots... (complete with Jake & Sonic's bromance and airport shenanigans, of course). I'm so glad to hear you're still shipping Muffin x Candle; I had so much fun writing their romance for this first phase!

_Dixie Darlin:_ I'm sorry... I had to do it... Y_Y

_CraftyKeronian:_ Yes, the spoon was made from random code that was leaking out of the game... maybe some of Candle's, but probably a lot more came from the crater in the fungeon, that's where most of it leaked from. I kind of imagined it like a pheonix, rising from the ashes, you know? Something beautiful and sentimental arising from the dust of a dungeon... and the hope that something beautiful can come from the tragedy of Muffin Man... and as for the communication via the spoon, it really was the Muffin Man. He's still part of the game; part of its hardware... he just doesn't have a physical form anymore. He has access to all the code as the doctor of the game, but since the code was all very unstable, he only dared manipulate a little bit of code to communicate with her - hence the warming of the spoon.

* * *

**_For news / updates on this and other stories in-between chapter postings, check out my author's profile!_**


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